Posted: Oct 30, 2019 / 11:11 AM CDT / Updated: Oct 30, 2019 / 11:36 AM CDT
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MILTON, Fla. (WKRG) – Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson held a news conference Wednesday to discuss several recent car break-ins where suspects were looking for guns.
The sheriff says a group of three to five suspects from neighboring Escambia County could be behind ten recent car burglaries in Santa Rosa County, including one crime in which a gun was stolen.
The sheriff showed home surveillance video from a car burglary in Pace on October 28 in which the person whose gun was stolen tried to chase after the suspects, who then fired at the victim.
Thirteen minutes later, Sheriff Johnson says the same suspects then robbed someone who was standing around waiting for an Uber.
Investigators have identified the suspects but are not releasing their names because they hope to make arrests soon, the sheriff said. The ages of the suspects range from 16 to 21.
The sheriff expressed concern about the amount of crime that he says is spilling over from Escambia County.
According to the sheriff, his deputies arrested 670 people in 2018 who had Escambia County addresses. With two months still to go in 2019, this year’s total is already at 705, the sheriff said.
Investigators believe the same suspects also stole four vehicles from the Pensacola area on October 24.
The gun used in the shooting was not stolen as stated:
My husband is the one who chased them an the sheriff's office is saying that it was our gun that was stolen. That is incorrect. The gun was not ours it had already been stolen from a vehicle before they got to ours. All of our guns are locked up safe in our gun cabinet. I wished they could get their stories correct.