Meth-addled war veteran kills four, including a baby, in a seemingly random shooting spree in Florida
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran is accused of killing four people, including a mother and her 3-month-old baby in her arms, while high on meth in what appears to have a been a random shooting spree east of Tampa.
The suspect was identified Sunday as Bryan Riley, a 33-year-old former U.S. Marine Corps sharpshooter who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
“If he’d have given us the opportunity, we’d have shot him up alive. But he didn’t because he’s a coward,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd in a press conference Sunday.
Riley told detectives he was “a survivalist” and was high on methamphetamine, Judd said.
In one home, deputies found the bodies of a man, 40, a woman, 33, and a three-month-old baby who died cradled in the woman’s arms.
They also found a wounded girl, 11, who had been shot seven times.
In a second home next door, responders found the body of a 62-year-old woman, who was the infant’s grandmother.
“They begged for their lives and I killed them anyway,” Riley told them during an interrogation, according to Judd.
Also among the dead was the family dog, which Judd said had multiple gunshot wounds. That dog was named after a local police K9 who was killed in the line of duty, Judd sid.
Riley, the alleged shooter, was taken to a Lakeland trauma center and has since been transferred to the Polk County Jail.
It began around 7:30 p.m. Saturday when a woman called 911 to report a man who came to her house and said, “God sent me here to speak with one of your daughters, Amber,” Judd said.
The woman told the man that there was no one there by that name.
The man initially refused to leave, so the woman called police and then he took off.
Judd said they received a call from a nearby man soon after, telling authorities a man told him he was looking for a girl named Amber. This caller said he didn’t know an Amber, called the police and then the man left.
About 4:20 a.m., authorities returned to the same house after getting 911 calls reporting an active shooter.
Deputies arrived to find a truck on fire in front of the house — and a man wearing camouflage, but without any guns visibly in his possession.
Responding officers and deputies say they saw a path of glow sticks from the road to the home.
The man, who Judd said was “ready for battle,” ran inside the home.
Deputies heard more shots. A woman inside the house was screaming and a baby was crying.
A team of deputies tried to run into the house, but the front door was blocked, they said, according to Judd.
One was able to get into the house from the back, but was confronted by the man in camouflage — but now he also donned a bulletproof vest, knee pads and head protection.
A shootout ensued. A lieutenant fired at Riley, hitting him at least once.
The man then retreated into the house as authorities set up a perimeter.
Authorities were working to determine if there was a connection between Riley and the victims, but said Sunday afternoon that they have not found any connections.
Investigators were confounded by the seemingly random shooting spree.
“The big question that all of us has is, ‘Why?’” State Attorney Brian Haas said. “We will not know today or maybe ever.”
Riley is from Brandon, Florida, which is about 30 miles west of Lakeland and about 15 miles east of Tampa, Judd said, and has “virtually no criminal history,” aside from a minor charge when he was a teenager.
Riley served four years in the Marines, was honorably discharged and then reenlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves, Judd said. He served in Iraq in 2008 and Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010.
“Prior to this morning, this guy was a war hero. He fought for his country in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Judd said. “And this morning he’s a cold-blooded killer.”
He’s employed by Tarpon Springs, Fla.-based ESS Global Corporation as a bodyguard and security worker.
Authorities spoke to Riley’s girlfriend of four years, who said he suffered from depression, but never saw him violent.
She said Riley provided security at a church in Orlando about a week earlier and then said he got a message from God to help victims of Hurricane Ida. Riley began buying and taking supplies to the impacted areas, according to Judd.
When he returned, he was acting erratic, unable to sleep and bought $1,000 worth of cigars, his girlfriend told investigators. He said that God told him to buy the cigars as a gift for people impacted by the hurricane, Judd said.
After Riley was taken into custody, a search of his truck found supplies that indicated preparation for a gunfight, including bleeding-control kits.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-ne-lakeland-survivalist-meth-shooting-20210905-7ayqovi2kjb3xonchmwaxfqeeq-story.html