Family birthday party turns deadly when man flashes gun during fight, Florida cops say
What started as a family birthday party ended in a gunfight when one of the partygoers flashed a weapon during an argument, Florida officials said.
A family was gathered in Kissimmee on Jan. 21 for a party when three men got into a verbal argument outside the house, Osceola County Sheriff Marcos R. Lopez said in a Jan. 23 news conference.
It was after midnight, and the fight quickly escalated and turned physical, Lopez said.
The sheriff said there were “different versions” of what started the fight, but it stemmed from someone disrespecting another person at the party “over a girl.”
During the fight, one of the men, identified as 30-year-old Steven Jesus Perez by WESH, flashed a gun to the other two, according to the sheriff.
Seeing the gun, Liam Nicholson, 28, ran out to a car parked outside and got his own weapon, Lopez said. Another man, identified as Maximo Mercado Jr., 41, was also armed during the incident, authorities said.
Lopez said the three men were not related, and were there as family friends.
Perez started to run away from the other two men when Mercado shot multiple times at Perez, the sheriff said, and Nicholson fired a shot either into the ground or the air from the car.
Perez was hit multiple times and died outside the home, Lopez said.
“I assume there was a little bit of alcohol also involved,” Lopez said. “Every time you get that combination of stuff together sometimes it doesn’t end well and in this case, one person lost their life.”
After the shooting, Nicholson and Mercado got into the vehicle and drove off, Lopez said, but stopped to throw the gun Mercado used to shoot Perez into a pond.
The gun was later recovered and identified as the weapon used to shoot Perez, the sheriff said.
On Jan. 22, Mercado was charged with second-degree murder, discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling and tampering with evidence. Nicholson was charged with principal to murder in the second degree, accessory after the fact, discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling, tampering with evidence and battery. They were both taken into custody, authorities said.
“They don’t know how to fight fair,” Lopez said. “You know, fist fights back in the day, that’s what we used to do. Now things have changed. People have firearms.”
Kissimmee is about 25 miles south of Orlando.
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