David Dorsey|Fort Myers News-Press
Tyrone Reed Jr. sat with his leg propped up, leaning left to reveal the four gunshot wounds on the right side of his body. He said a Hendry County Sheriff deputy shot himfour times about 1:45 a.m. May 17.
Reed said he was unarmed, had his hands up and had just arrived at his front yard after fleeing a LaBelle block party that turned to chaos when shots were fired there. Perhaps two minutes later, he felt afirst bullet that went into his right knee and knocked him down, after which he was shot three more times, in his buttocks, back and shoulder.
Hundreds were at the party, an annual festivity celebrating Black heritage in LaBelle along several streets intersecting with Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard,13 days after Governor Ron DeSantis lifted a stay-at-home order May 4.
Reed said he fled on foot, running to his home on Kissimmee Avenue. The initial shots at the party were fired by someone unknown. It is not yet clear why a deputy began firing sometime between 30 seconds and two minutes later, according to what various witnesses have told Reed's attorney and The News-Press.
Scot Goldberg, an attorney from the Fort Myers law firm Goldberg Noone and Abraham, used the plural pronoun “they” when discussing the shootings. But he said he learned from investigating and speaking to several eyewitnesses that Hendry County Sgt. Nestor Echevarria shot Reed four times.
Gordon said he was toldEchevarria also shotLaTravis “Tra” Williams of LaBelle twice and that 26-to-30 rounds were fired outside Reed’s home.
Williams, who could not be reached for comment, is being represented by Fort Myers attorney Joe North.
“Mr. Williams still has lots of leg pain and he has nightmares,” North said. “He needs medical treatment with an orthopedic physician, and he needs treatment with a psychologist for the emotional injuries.”
Echevarria has been a deputy since March 2010, according to the Hendry County Sheriff website. His status Thursday could not be confirmed by the Hendry County Sheriff Office, but Goldberg said he was still on active duty.
Reed’s address and the date were the only information not redacted froma three-page incident report from the Hendry County Sheriff Office.
The Hendry County Sheriff Office declined to comment.
“They didn’t shoot him once, but they shot him four times,” Goldberg said of his client. “I’d leave everything blank, too.”
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Goldberg filed a notice June 10 of claim to sue within 180 days over what happened to Reed.Suing in Hendry County court would limit any damage awards to $200,000, Goldberg said, who added a federal court filing would be much more likely.
Reed was taken by ambulancethat night and survived the 30-mile drive to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, where he had emergency surgery to remove the bullet from the right side of his back that had lodged inhis small intestines.
Reed stayed in the hospital for almost two weeks and had a second surgery to remove a bullet from the right side of his buttocks.
Because the Hendry County Sheriff Office confiscated his cell phone and his wallet, which contained his drivers license and Social Security card, Reed has had trouble making follow-up visits to doctors for his remaining medical issues, Goldberg said.
Reed still cannot walk without assistance because of the initial gunshot to his right knee, and he will need surgery to remove that bullet. He also has another bullet lodged in his upper right shoulder.
“I just hope he gets justice,” said Destane Duncan, Reed’s cousin. “I don’t want this to be one of those things that happens off camera, and nothing really gets done about it.
“I would say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, except he was in his own yard.”
Reed grabbed a walker in front of him, stood and limped out of his aunt’s Fort Myers garage and into her home, where he has been staying. He declined to be further interviewed about the shootings.
“It could have been me,” said Marcellus Mitchell of LaBelle, who said he saw Williams get shot, running away from the chaos in the other direction. “They pointed a gun at me, too. It didn’t really make the news, and that’s crazy with George Floyd and everything going on right now.”
Mitchell said he could not see Reed get shot because of his sightlines.
The shootings occurred eight days before Floyd died asa Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, which was filmed and seen by millions across the country and prompted mass protests against police brutality and rallies for civil rights.
More of our coverage: Many SWFL law enforcement agencies have prohibitions on officers using chokeholds
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Goldberg said he was not sure whether Echevarria or any of the other deputies on the scene that night had body camera footage of the shootings.
“We’re still gathering facts and data,” Goldberg said. “We don’t know everything that happened. We wanted to allow a little bit of time to find out what FDLE finds.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcementdeclined to comment on the investigation.
“Because of what’s going on in this country now, we want to be very careful about how we define justice,” Goldberg said. “Justice for him, I don’t know yet what his life will be like, given the bullet that went into his intestines. He has a fractured knee and another bullet in his shoulder. We need to see if there’s any ligament damage done.
“As far as justice goes, I think the thing Tyrone said is he wants accountability. He understands why police were there. He removed himself from a bad situation. His hands were up, and after he was shot, the deputy put a knee on his back.”
Reed survived, Goldberg said, because he got lucky and because he was in good shape.
Reed, 23, played football and basketball at LaBelle High before transferring to Moore Haven, where he continued to play as a senior, graduating in 2016. He went on to play football for a semester at University of Pikeville in Pikeville, Kentucky, before leaving school and returning home. Prior to Covid-19 disrupting his job, he worked on a lawn maintenance and landscaping crew in LaBelle.
Reed has a scar of about four 4 inches above his belly button from the surgery to remove the bullet from his intestines.
“All of the bullets missed big arteries and blood vessels,” Goldberg said. “There was no life flight. And it makes me wonder, if this had happened in Fiddlesticks, if there would have been a helicopter involved. We can’t take Tyrone back and make him whole.”
Connect with this reporter: David Dorsey (Facebook), @DavidADorsey (Twitter).
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