Marion County sheriff’s deputies and detectives responded to the scene of a shooting Monday night.
The incident took place at an apartment in the 8200 block of Fairways Circle in Ocala. When deputies arrived, they discovered that one person had been shot. He was transported to a local hospital and is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
At the shooting scene, deputies discovered a 2012 Honda Civic with numerous bullet holes in it and blood on the ground beside the vehicle. A witness then reported seeing 19-year-old Samuel Robert Hudson walking from the area where the shooting took place toward a patch of bushes near the apartment complex’s dumpster. A short time later, deputies found a black Glock 9mm handgun, a sheriff’s office report states, adding that during the initial investigation, it was undetermined if the gun or the person who concealed it were involved in the shooting.
After being taken into custody, Hudson told deputies that after he and the shooting victim arrived at the victim’s residence, the man went inside and he waited in his vehicle. A few minutes later, he said, the victim placed his black backpack inside the backseat of his vehicle and the “gun shots started,” the report says.
Hudson told deputies that he ran to a neighboring apartment to have them call 911 and when he returned, the victim was inside his apartment. He said the victim told him to go to his vehicle and “get rid of his gun from inside his backpack.” So he went to the car, “knowing it was going to be a crime scene due to it having been shot,” and hid the gun near the dumpster, the report says, adding that Hudson admitted “he knew his actions weren’t right and he should not have moved the gun.”
Hudson, who lives at 2761 NE 66th St. in Ocala, was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with tampering with evidence. He was released Tuesday afternoon on $5,000 bond and no court date has been set for him to answer to the charge.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, no other arrests had been made in the shooting, sheriff’s officials said.