Florida drive-by shooting vehicle found, police have ‘very promising’ leads on suspects after 11 wounded

The vehicle sought in connection with a drive-by shooting that left 11 men wounded in central Florida on Monday was believed to be found as investigators continue to follow “very promising” leads on the suspects, authorities said Tuesday.

A dark-blue four-door Nissan Altima was spotted slowing down just before 3:45 p.m. near Iowa Avenue North and Plum Street in Lakeland as the windows were rolled down and several shots were fired from inside, police have said.

“We have a high level of confidence that this is the vehicle we were looking for,” Lakeland Police Chief Sammy Taylor said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that investigators planned to run lab tests on it to verify it was involved in the shootings.

Taylor said that four people were believed to be in the vehicle and that at least two of them had fired the shots in what investigators have described as a “targeted” attack. 

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While no suspects were in custody, Taylor said that detectives have been actively pursuing them.

“We have some very promising leads,” Taylor said.

Authorities have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspects.

Taylor said an 11th victim was identified late Monday after he walked himself into a hospital with minor injuries.

Of the 11 victims, two suffered critical injuries. One of the critically injured men was shot in the stomach, and the other was shot in the jaw. The others had non-life-threatening injuries. 

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The victims were males between the ages of 20 and 35. Some of the shooting victims were cooperating but others weren’t, detectives said.

Taylor described the neighborhood of cinder block and wood frame bungalows with small yards as “challenged,” a place where a lot of renters resided, and he said the police had focused a lot of attention on the area in recent years. 

Many of the homes had bars on the windows, and on Tuesday multiple bullet holes could be seen in the window of a nearby apartment building near the empty lot where the shootings took place.

Police said marijuana packaged for sale was found at the scene of the shooting, and investigators believe drug sales were taking place at the time.

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Lakeland is a city of 112,000 residents located about halfway between Tampa and Orlando.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.