East Naples man opens fire, neighbors say he suffers from mental illness

Published: Updated:

EAST NAPLES, Fla. – An East Naples man opened fire at a Jerry’s Towing on Thursday evening.

“I was backing up saying, ‘Harry, calm down,'” Ramona Lyon said.

Lyon found herself with the barrel of an AR-15 pointed at her chest from someone she never would have suspected, someone she helped raised– 25-year-old Harrison Ford.

Lyon says he suffers from Schizophrenia and recently had trouble getting his medications.

“I said, ‘Harry, come on now, what’s going on? Come on, quit playing around Harry,'” Lyon explained. “And he said one guy said, ‘kill her,’ then he looked at the other said, ‘no we like her!’

As she ran down the street, she heard gunshots. Then 911 calls started pouring in.

“Must have been 15, 20 rounds of a gun being shot,” one caller said.

“He was walking around with the gun and he couldn’t even walk straight, like he almost tripped a couple times,” another told the dispatcher.

“Someone is shooting crazy at Jerry’s Towing,” a third caller said.

According to the Collier County Sheriff’s report, Ford was arguing with two to three people in his head who were mad. Lyon says that earlier that day, Ford asked her to help him get his medication but she couldn’t until later that evening. She says she didn’t think it would get that bad and that she’s never seen him like that.

“Harry wasn’t going to hurt me, he just wanted his meds, and he was trying to subdue the people inside him,” Lyon said. “He’s got six personalities, he has really bad problems.”

Deputies swarmed the streets as neighbors stood outside their homes.

“There’s five of them stacked together and they’re walking down the road yelling, ‘drop the gun! drop the gun!'” Dorothy Brown said.

By the time police got there, Ford was hiding under a car.

“He didn’t want to hurt anyone. He kept crying, ‘help me! Help me! Help me!” Lyon said.

No one was injured in the shooting. Lyon said Ford bought a gun just three days before the incident happened. She said she will not be pressing charges against him.

Jerry’s Towing said they have no comment at this time.

Copyright ©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.