Three unemployed Leesburg men were arrested Saturday night when two police officers and area residents heard gunshots fired in the area of E. Magnolia and Lake streets.
When Leesburg Police officers arrived in the area, they were directed to a house at 107 S. Lake Street. As they pulled up to the residence, Kendrick Cordell Tyree Jones stepped outside and told them he was involved in an altercation with two other men who lived in an apartment complex across the street from his residence. Jones, 26, told officers he didn’t own a gun and no one had fired a weapon from his house, a Leesburg Police report states.
As officers were speaking with Jones, two other men, 20-year-old Tyriq DeQuan Smith and 40-year-old Gary G. Malcolm, also came outside. Both told officers they also live in the home with Jones.
During the course of the investigation, an area resident showed officers a video recording of Jones on the south side of his house carrying a high-capacity AR-15-style rifle and shooting into the ground three times toward the apartment complex, the police report says.
A short time later, a senior detective located the area where Jones allegedly fired the rifle and found two .223-caliber steel casings on the ground. The spent cartridges were identical to two casings previously found by the front door of the residence, the report says.
Officers then detained all three men while they cleared the home for safety. While in the residence, they observed “in plain view” illegal drugs, ammunition, a rifle identical to the one Jones allegedly fired and drug paraphernalia, the report says.
After being read their rights, all three men agreed to speak with officers. Jones claimed ownership of the rifle (a Spike’s Tactical Model ST-16 with an Aimpoint Red-Dot optic sight) and ammunition located in the first bedroom searched, the report says, adding that the rifle previously was reported stolen by the Tavares Police Department.
Smith claimed ownership of several items found in the same bedroom, including a digital scale, small plastic baggies, a bamboo smoking device, marijuana with a weight of 101.8 grams, marijuana with a weight of seven grams and 15.1 grams of methamphetamine, the report says, adding that field tests confirmed the drugs found were marijuana and methamphetamine.
Malcolm told officers that a multicolored smoking device and 1.6 grams of marijuana found in his bedroom belonged to him but denied owning a black container with methamphetamine in it, the report says, adding that Malcolm claimed the methamphetamine belonged to a “girl who also stayed in that room.”
All three men were taken into custody, transported to the Lake County Jail and are scheduled to appear in Lake County Court on Aug. 13 at 8:30 a.m.
Jones was charged with grand theft of police equipment from a vehicle, possession of a short-barreled rifle and discharging a firearm in public or on residential property. He was released Sunday at 7:28 p.m. on $31,000 bond.
Smith, who originally told officers he lived in the house on Lake Street, listed his address at the jail as 822 E. Magnolia Street. He was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine (14 grams or more), possession of marijuana with intent to sell within 1,000 feet of a church and possession of drug paraphernalia and was being held on $21,000 bond.
Malcolm was charged with possession of marijuana less than 20 grams, possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was held on $4,000 bond.