Police: Orange City man shoots DeLand cousin in confrontation

DELAND — The latest in a wave of shootings that left a 14-year-old boy with a bullet wound has some community members worried and others frustrated, they said Monday.

Police are still trying to figure out how an argument over a glove led to the shooting at 509 W. Hubbard Ave. at 6:10 p.m. Sunday, said police Sgt. Chris Estes.

"It's not really clear at this point how the glove came into play in the shooting," Estes said.

Reports of a person shot sent police racing to the Hubbard Avenue home on Sunday, an area where officers have responded twice before for shootings, including a home invasion where a 22-year-old was shot to death.

According to the arrest report in Sunday's shooting, Victor Franklin, Jr., 19, of Orange City, shot his cousin Jayden Thompson, 14, in a bedroom of the home.

Franklin was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and was being held Monday on $20,000 bail.

At the home on Sunday, police found Thompson outside clutching his chest, the report states, adding that Thompson said he had been shot by his cousin, later identified as Franklin.

Thompson was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center where he was treated and released Sunday night, police said.

In speaking with police, Thompson said that he was in his bedroom eating pizza rolls when Franklin came into the room and pointed a gun at him. Franklin asked Thompson about a glove and when Thompson said he didn't know what Franklin was talking about, his cousin charged the slide of the pistol, ejecting a bullet, saying the round was for Thompson, investigators said.

Franklin then pointed the pistol at Thompson's head but what he said next was redacted in the report.

Thompson said he slapped the handgun away and the next thing he knew he was shot, the report details.

Although Franklin said he didn't mean to shoot Thompson, his cousin said he believed Franklin "intentionally meant to shoot him," officers wrote in their report.

Thompson told police that Franklin always carried a gun and joked a lot by pointing the gun at people. Franklin had pointed the gun at Thompson on Saturday in a confrontation about a cigar, detectives said.

Franklin, who ran from the scene of the shooting, was turned in to police by his mother and father, who drove him to the police station, according to DeLand investigators.

Franklin's statement to police is redacted from the report but he agreed to take police to the area where he threw away the firearm, the report states.

Police searched the area they described as "a known high crime area with several reports of shootings and narcotics violations," a half-mile from where Franklin shot Thompson, but did not find the weapon, the report said.

Franklin told police he found the gun on Thursday and had it hidden in the woods. On Sunday, he said he retrieved the firearm with the intention of selling it but instead went to Thompson's home, police said.

Franklin denied threatening Thompson or confronting him about a glove, police said.

The shooting is the second to occur on Hubbard Avenue and the third in the neighborhood in two weeks.

On May 9, in a home invasion, Michael Dixon, 22, was shot and killed at 612 Ambrose St.

Investigators said Dixon’s mother reported that at 4:52 a.m. she heard someone kicking in her door and when she opened her bedroom door, she saw a masked, armed man walking in the hallway, according to a call she made to 9-1-1.

The woman escaped through her bedroom window and heard at least three shots and her son screaming, she told dispatchers.

Police found Dixon lying face down and rushed him to Florida Hospital DeLand. Dixon was transferred to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach where he died of his gunshot wounds.

And on May 6, officers responded near the corner of South Stone Street and West Hubbard Avenue after 9 p.m. where they found 18-year-old Delvaughn Robinson with a gunshot wound to one of his legs, police said.

Witnesses told police Robinson was walking with friends when gunshots were fired from an unknown direction and he was hit in the leg.

A fourth shooting near that neighborhood occurred on Feb. 13. In that case, a shooter used an AR-15 type rifle to shoot up a home at 715 Wright Court wounding a 16-year-old boy inside the home.

The days-apart shootings prompted community leaders to gather at a prayer vigil organized by the DeLand Clergy Coalition on Thursday at Mount Calvary Free Will Baptist Church, where several DeLand-area religious leaders said there has been too much violence and murder and the best way to reduce it in West Volusia is by helping police and not following any street code. 

DeLand Police Chief Jason Umberger joined them to speak to about 100 people who packed the church.

Bishop Eugene Collier of the DeLand Clergy Coalition said in an interview Monday that he felt there is fear in the neighborhoods because of the frequent gun violence.

"We are deeply concerned when things like this happen in our community," the bishop said.

The coalition's prayer vigil was to encourage residents to come forward with information to help police combat crime, Collier said.

"We are working on having a great presence/relationship with law enforcement, come together and share information and get results," Collier said.

The coalition is also letting the community know that Chief Jason Umberger has put in measures like private telephone lines and online services so citizens can provide tips and information without giving their names, Collier said.

But the ultimate fight on crime starts at home, Collier said.

"(Good conduct and behavior) starts at home with families," Collier said. "Parenting skills start at home and the church can be an extra support."

Mike Williams, president of the NAACP West Volusia Chapter, expressed his frustration with the lack of cooperation the community gives police when crimes are committed by "black on blacks."

"If this would have been a white officer shooting a black person, there would have been an uproar," Williams said. "But the fact is that black-on-black crime is far worse."

Williams said the community rarely complains when a black person commits a crime on another black person.

"We got to do a better job in our community that when we see something in our community, when somebody does something wrong wrong, that we help the police," Williams said.

"We get all bent out of shape when a white officer shoots a black person, but what when Johnny shoots Jimmy, when 15 people witnessed what happened but nobody knows anything when police start asking them?"

Estes said said although no arrests have been made in the May 6 and May 9 shootings, investigators continue to work the cases.

Anyone with information about the shootings is asked to contact the DeLand Police Department at 386-626-7400 or submit an anonymous tip at delandpd.com.

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