Motive behind Cape Coral shooting spree still unknown

CAPE CORAL, Fla.- A young child pulled out of the car of a man behind multiple shootings in Cape Coral Sunday is now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

The child and another individual were in 31-year-old Christopher Moran’s vehicle Sunday when Moran was killed in a shootout with Cape Coral police on Skyline Boulevard.

The shootout followed a shooting spree in which police say Moran killed a motorcyclist along Skyline Boulevard and an employee at a Circle K at the intersection of Chiquita Boulevard and Cape Coral Parkway West. Another victim also sustained injuries inside the store.

A motive behind the attacks is still unknown and Cape Coral police have not detailed whether Moran knew the two people killed.

According to jail records, Moran was arrested in Daytona Beach in 2007 for battery and false imprisonment and charged with DUI in Lee County in 2014. Earlier this year, he was involved in a car crash.

Jennifer Conforti says she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw police name Moran as the gunman from the weekend shootings, “I was so shocked. I started screaming, I’m like ‘that’s him! That’s the guy that hit me!'”

Conforti says on March 17, she was driving home from Publix when Moran’s car slammed into her at a southeast Cape Coral intersection.

“My car spun, I jumped out of the car and I ran over to him,” Conforti said. “He kept saying ‘Thank God that my baby wasn’t in the car.’ And ‘Thank God the kids aren’t hurt.’ He must’ve said it like 10-15 times that night.”

Conforti added, “it’s pretty ironic now how he says that but now his baby was in the car when he did what he did on Skyline,” referring to multiple witness accounts that a young child was in Moran’s car during Sunday’s shooting spree.

According to court records, Moran recently tried to protect his son from other family members. Moran filed an injunction last November against his son’s grandmother, accusing her of child neglect and threats, according to the documents.

“But then he has the baby in his car and does that,” Conforti said. “That makes no sense to me. That’s why I feel he was under the influence of some kind of substance.”

The names of those killed have not yet been released by police as the investigation is ongoing.