At a press conference this morning, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said his team is investigating the triple homicide that took place early Sunday morning in the area of 65th and Jackson streets as “a targeted ambush.”
“What does that mean? It means that this is not random,” he said. “It’s not a drive-by. This is a shooting that took place at close range, and it clearly was targeted for us.”
He said the shooting happened near an event center that was hosting an adult, invitation-only birthday party.
The sheriff described the murders as:
There were three males sitting in a car at that party. It’s a convertible Mustang they were sitting in. Parked nearby were the two shooters. Evidently, as we can tell right now, they parked their car to the east, and then they got out, and they walked through a yard and then through a shed until they got close to the three victims.”
They fired multiple rounds, both fired and at close range, striking all three of the victims. Two of the victims were declared deceased at the scene, and another was transported to the hospital, where he subsequently passed away.
The victims are:
Markeese Turner 26
Michael Carstarphen 28
Trashawn Powers 23
“This is certainly a tragedy,” said Sheriff Simmons. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family. You don’t want to get a phone call saying something has happened to your child.”
He added, “We are looking into the possibility that this might be a retaliatory event or an act based upon an act that took place a couple of weeks ago or a couple of months ago. We are not ruling anyone out, but right now, we do know that there were two people involved. They both fired several shots, both at close range, and we’re looking at the possibility of it being a retaliatory shooting.”
He asked the public to come forward and share any information or video they may have. To report a tip to Crimestoppers, please click here.
When answering media questions, the sheriff shared what he saw on the deputies’ body cams:
“Our deputies were there really quickly. When we got there, the victims were already out of the car, and there were witnesses that were already doing CPR. Our deputies took over the CPR while at the same time creating a perimeter, establishing a command post, and coordinating the response of additional deputies. They did just a great job in what is a chaotic scene.”
I asked if the victims were invited guests to the party. Sheriff Simmons said, “It looks as if one of the victims was an invited guest; the other two may not have been invited guests to the party. The party was a wear-white type of party, and only one of them was wearing white, and that’s where I got that information from.”
He continued, “Now again, that’s not concrete, but that’s when you start to look at these things and evaluate exactly who might be involved and who might not be involved. Who was invited, and who was not invited? The best guess we can get at this point, Rick, is that one was invited, and the other two were just accompanying him.”
My follow-up focused on whether any of the victims had criminal records.
“I have not looked at all of the criminal record. I know one of the victims just was released from prison six days ago, but I haven’t looked at what the charge was.”