Hurricane Ian contractor shot dead by coworker in LaBelle, prosecutors say

Dan Glaun, Fort Myers News-Press
·3 min read
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Messiah Grier, a youth football coach from Texas, came to Southwest Florida as part of a team of Servpro contractors to help clean up after Hurricane Ian.

He never left.

Authorities in Hendry County say 36-year-old Vincent Harris, one of Grier's coworkers, shot and killed the 29-year-old San Antonio native following an argument in the parking lot of the Port LaBelle Inn on Oct. 6.

Hurricane Ian is linked to the deaths of 118 people in Florida, according to the state's Medical Examiner's Commission. Grier is the only person on that list to die by homicide.

“I got tons of kids man, at least a hundred plus kids that are (asking), 'Hey coach, what happened to Messiah?' " Julian Gonzalez, a friend of Grier's who runs the youth football league where he coached, said in an interview with KENS 5, the CBS affiliate in San Antonio.

"It’s hard to tell them that Messiah got shot,” Gonzalez told the television station.

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Photographs of Hurricane Ian victims cover a wall of flowers that make up the Hurricane Ian memorial at Centennial Park on Sunday, October 9, 2022 in Fort Myers, Fla. The memorial was started by Leo Soto and the crosses, bearing the victim's names, were added by Roberto Marquez.
Photographs of Hurricane Ian victims cover a wall of flowers that make up the Hurricane Ian memorial at Centennial Park on Sunday, October 9, 2022 in Fort Myers, Fla. The memorial was started by Leo Soto and the crosses, bearing the victim's names, were added by Roberto Marquez.

Shortly before 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 6, a Hendry County Sheriff's sergeant responded to a report of a shooting at the Port Labelle Inn. She found Grier lying shot in the parking lot as co-workers tried to give first aid and told him "don't give up," she wrote in her report.

Multiple witnesses told investigators that they saw Harris argue with Grier and heard a gunshot, before Harris took a work van and drove off. Emergency services responded to the parking lot and declared Grier dead at 7:44 a.m.

One witness "stated that he heard a gunshot. Then he saw Vincent trying to hand the black handgun to everyone," Detective Everton Morgan wrote in his report.

According to Morgan's report, surveillance video shows the two men arguing as the contractors moved equipment between vehicles in the minutes before the shooting. The footage shows Harris push Grier in the chest, who responds by throwing a punch. Harris then draws a black object that "appears to be a gun," puts it into Grier's chest and fires, according to the detective's report.

Deputies took Harris into custody after they noticed the missing Servpro van leaving the parking lot of a Dollar General. Harris allegedly admitted shooting Grier to investigators, saying he was responding to being punched in the face. Harris said that he left the scene to change his bloodstained pants and threw the gun out the window on the way, according to Morgan's report.

Harris is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 7 on charges of first-degree murder and evidence tampering.

Harris is being represented by a public defender. The 20th Judicial Circuit Public Defender's Office did not return a request for comment prior to publication.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Hurricane Ian contractor Messiah Grier shot dead by coworker, HCSO says