A 17-year-old suspect is on the run after Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said the boy fired a gun at a Lee County deputy and shot, injured a 16-year-old in the crossfire in Lehigh Acres on Friday morning.
According to Marceno, a deputy was called out to a home on Gilbert Avenue South for a domestic incident. According to police scanners, deputies were responding to a woman who said a man was pointing a gun at her.
While the deputy was speaking to a 16-year-old boy in a car outside the home suspect, Eusebio Montoya, 17, arrived and fired at the deputy. Montoya’s bullets struck the teenager multiple times as the deputy returned fire.
“Our suspect runs away, at which time our deputy looks over and he sees the male victim in the car have been hit multiple times,” Marceno said.
Marceno said the deputy began life-saving measures, “applying QuikClot, getting rendering aid to the 16-year-old and getting him ultimately to EMS where he’s trauma-ed out of here.”
Montoya, meanwhile, ran away. Deputies found his gun, but have not found Montoya.
WINK News spoke to someone who says they heard the shooting as it was happening. That neighbor told us that he lives right next to where the shooting happened. He also said that the 17-year-old suspect is his neighbor and lives along the same street.
That neighbor wanted to remain anonymous but he says he heard the commotion outside of his home which was followed by gunshots. “I hear the shots fired and then I walked to my door to open it, that’s when I noticed the cops screaming at me to go back in the house,” he said.
“And there was at least 5 or 6 shots fired… just bullet holes going through my car,” said the neighbor.
The man says this was the last thing the expected in his neighborhood, let alone from Montoya. “Definitely hits close to home. I wasn’t expecting that from him. You know, he seems like a decent kid, but you know, that was unexpected man, ” he said.
The 16-year-old remains in the hospital.
LCSO had at least one helicopter and one drone searching for Montoya. K9 units searched the ground behind homes off Harry Avenue South, the same area where his gun was found.
“The only thing I seen was just the officers running up and down the street with guns drawn literally out my front window there,” said the neighbor.
WINK News Safety and Security Specialist Rich Kolko said a drone is covert because a helicopter can be heard.
“The sound of a helicopter, that’s going to scare somebody to move and that can actually flush them out from where they may be hiding and get them moving,” Kolko said.
Forensic units were also on scene on Seventh Street SW.
Kolko said deputies have a lot to go on.
They know where he started and where he ran because they found his gun, Kolko said.
“That narrows the pie. And that makes it easier for law enforcement to concentrate their efforts on that area,” Kolko said.
Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers said: “While we know he ditched one gun this morning, we don’t know if he has other firearms. He should absolutely be considered armed and dangerous.”
If you’ve seen Eusebio Montoya, call SWFL Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477) or submit a tip online at www.southwestfloridacrimestoppers.com or on the P3 Tips mobile app. You can remain anonymous. There is a $5,000 reward being offered by Crime Stoppers.