Why did he do it? Cape Coral gunman’s girlfriend could be key to answer

CAPE CORAL, Fla. – Why did he do it? It’s a question on the minds of many disturbed by the cold-blooded murder of 54-year-old Jeremy C. Taylor and 26-year-old Sean Strickland, who were killed by gunman Christopher Moran, 31, in a shooting spree Sunday.

The men Moran killed were strangers to him, by all accounts. One woman Jessica Verhaagh, is still traumatized after she witnessed Moran shoot and kill Taylor. Taylor was just riding his motorcycle on Skyline Boulevard, she said.

“The motorcyclist did nothing wrong and there was no road rage between the two that I could see,” she said in a written statement. “He (Moran) purposely had a purpose for what he was doing and he shot the motorcyclist when he got up next to him with a black one-pump shot gun.”

Verhaagh said Moran took his time leaving the first scene before gunning down Strickland at the Circle K at Chiquita Boulevard and Cape Coral Parkway West. That’s where Richard Huwiler encountered Moran.

“I won’t forget that guy’s eyes when he looked at me, cocked that rifle, that shotgun,” he said. “Very traumatic. In my mind I’m thinking I’m hoping this dude don’t come back around the corner and shoot me again. I think he probably thought he killed me.”

Huwiler was shot int he hand. Police said Moran did not have a known history of mental illness or drug abuse. But a dismissed domestic violence injunction paints a different picture.

In 2008, Moran’s step-father told authorities that Moran threatened to kill him while high on drugs, the News-Press reports. In the court document, Moran and his mother are accused of ransacking his home and stealing from his workplace. Moran’s mother and step-father divorced a year later, according to the News-Press.

The injunction was dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

Moran’s spree  on Sunday ended with bullets. From his car, Moran “violently resisted officers” before he was shot and killed along Skyline Boulevard. A woman, 32-year-old Maria Rodriguez, and Moran’s 14-month-old son were in that car. They were sent to the hospital with injuries sustained during the shootout. Police will not yet say whether it was officers’ bullets that hit them or whether Moran shot at officers.

They also are not releasing any updates on the condition of the baby, but say Rodriguez is in serious but stable condition. She was Moran’s live-in girlfriend, according to neighbors.

How, if at all, was Rodriguez involved? And why did the Cape Coral gunman put Rodriguez and his own son’s life in peril?

Verhaagh said she did not notice a child in the car or make out a woman when she saw the first of Moran’s two shootings. But she said there was a passenger with him.

“I didn’t see a child and I wasn’t to sure if it was a woman at that time in the passenger (seat) but I did see him give the gun to passenger before he took off,” Vehaagh said.

The Cape Coral Police Department is not prepared to release any information regarding an interview with Rodriguez, nor would CCPD spokesperson Det. Sgt. Dana Coston confirm whether one had taken place.

With Moran dead, Rodriguez’ memory of Sunday’s events could be crucial to uncovering answers about why the spree happened. Coston said officers are working on these questions as part of their investigation.

“Discovering the motive is definitely a question that we are working very hard to get an answer to,” Coston said in an interview with WINK News reporter Adam Wright. “All the questions that you and your viewers have are very much the same questions our investigators have, as well.”