Suspect in Port St. Lucie shooting arrested in Fort Myers
PORT ST. LUCIE — A man accused in the fatal shooting last month of a 20-year-old man in Port St. Lucie was apprehended Friday in Fort Myers, police said.
Alan Dale Williams III, 21, was taken into custody in connection with a May 24 shooting that Port St. Lucie Police said happened off Southwest Gatlin Boulevard just east of Interstate 95. Williams III is in the Lee County Jail.
Officers shortly before 7 p.m. went to Southwest Aledo Lane and Brigantine Place for a reported shooting, and found the man, a Port St. Lucie resident, dead in a 2022 red BMW 330i, police officials said.
“Video surveillance shows the victim and a ... female passenger in his vehicle meeting up with two other individuals in a separate vehicle we believe to be a red Jeep Cherokee,” Acting Police Chief Richard Del Toro said at the time. “Suspect exited the red Jeep Cherokee, got into the back of the victim's vehicle. After a short drive through the parking lot, we believe he discharged a firearm at which time the victim was shot in the back of the head.”
Police on May 25 announced they’d gotten a warrant for the arrest of Williams III with help from social media, law enforcement partners and the public after releasing a still capture from surveillance video. The warrant charges him with murder and possession of a firearm by a felon.
A red Jeep suspected to have been used in the incident also was recovered.
Police didn’t identity the deceased 20-year-old man, citing Marsy’s law.
Introduced in memory of a young woman murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Marsy’s Law was created to offer crime victims a slate of rights, including protecting them and their families from harassment by their attackers. Some law enforcement officials have interpreted the statute as applying to any victim, as well as to law enforcement officers being entitled to privacy and having their identity protected.
“We believe the suspect and victim knew each other,” Del Toro said at the time. “Don't know what the motive was behind the meeting to begin with, but we're going to follow up on that and get some answers for the family.”
Williams III in 2022 pleaded no contest and was adjudicated guilty of robbery with a deadly weapon and third degree grand theft charges in connection with a 2018 incident in Port St. Lucie, records show. He was sentenced to just over four years in prison, but was given credit for almost three years of time served.
Del Toro said investigators were interviewing witnesses and the passenger in the BMW, an 18-year-old woman who wasn’t hurt.
What, if any, relationship between the 18-year-old woman and the 20-year-old man who was fatally shot wasn’t clear.
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Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on Twitter @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Port St. Lucie fatal shooting suspect caught in Fort Myers
