A man was killed and a woman was injured after multiple shots were fired inside a car near the Super 8 motel in Ocala on Tuesday evening.
Shortly before 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday, October 18, the Ocala Police Department (OPD) received a call from a local hospital regarding two victims, a Black male and Hispanic female, who had entered the hospital with gunshot wounds. According to OPD, the man had sustained multiple gunshot wounds and the woman had a single gunshot wound to her hand.
While at the hospital, the male shooting victim, identified as 23-year-old Ortiz Phillips Samuel, Jr., succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased.
OPD states that the shooting incident occurred inside a car that was in the Super 8 motel parking lot at 3916 W Silver Springs Boulevard. According to detectives, an altercation took place between the vehicle’s four occupants.
Samuel was in the front passenger seat, and he was shot multiple times during the fight. The female driver, who was not identified by OPD, was shot once in the hand.
Immediately after the shooting, the female driver began heading to the hospital. The shooter exited the vehicle at some point between the motel’s parking lot and the hospital, and the shooter remains at large, according to OPD.Â
No details were provided regarding the identity of the shooter.
The Ocala Police Department is actively investigating the homicide. Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to call OPD’s detectives at 352-369-7000, and reference case number: 202200135044.