OKEECHOBEE — Two men and a local teen have been charged in connection with the alleged shooting of a 19-year-old Okeechobee man in what police describe as a “dope deal gone bad.”
Okeechobee City Police Department (OCPD) detectives say Brian Gorby, N.E. Fifth Street, was shot multiple times Friday afternoon with a medium-caliber handgun. Detective James Pickering said the gun has been recovered, but it’s still not clear as to whom the gun belongs.
Arrested Nov. 4 were: Daivondre Allen Queener, 18, of Conyers, Ga.; Roman Chase Bennett, 17, S.W. Eighth St., Okeechobee; and Noah Wayne Collins,
Roman Chase Bennett, 17
19, S.R. 78 W., Okeechobee.
Daivondre Allen Queener, 18
Noah Wayne Collins, 19
Queener has been charged with one count of armed robbery with a firearm with serious bodily injury. He is being held in the Okeechobee County Jail on $100,000 bond.
Collins, who is charged with one felony count of accessory after the fact-armed robbery, is being held in the county jail on a bond of $70,000.
Because Bennett is a juvenile, he was booked into the county jail then taken to the St. Lucie Regional Detention Center in Fort Pierce. He is charged as a principal with one felony count of robbery with a firearm with serious bodily injury.
OCPD investigators said the firearm was recovered a couple of blocks from the N.E. Fifth Street shooting scene. It was found in the 300 block of N.E. Eighth Ave. lying in the roadway after being tossed from the black two-door vehicle by Queener, noted Detective Pickering.
When asked how much pot was taken, Detective Pickering said Monday afternoon he didn’t yet know.
“The majority of it is still in the car,” he said.
When Detective Pickering was contacted Monday he was in the process of penning a search warrant application for the vehicle. Once approved by a judge, the detective will search the vehicle.
Okeechobee City Police Department detectives James Pickering (left), Bill Saum (center) and Jack Boon (right) spent much of Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 8, executing a search warrant on the 2006 Mitsubishi owned by Noah Collins. Collins, along with Daivondre Queener and Roman Chase Bennett, are accused of shooting Brian Gorby, 19, late last week in what detectives say was a drug deal gone bad. Photo by Eric Kopp.
The detective went on to say it was Queener who actually pulled the trigger.
“It was a dope deal gone bad,” said the veteran investigator. “They didn’t want to pay (Gorby) for it. Basically, they robbed him. We just don’t know how much they took.”
A small amount of suspected pot was found at the shooting scene and seized by OCPD Detective Bill Saum.
He went on to say it’s still not clear how many times Gorby was shot.
“He had four wounds, but one was a through-and-through that re-entered his body. A bullet was recovered from his body,” added Detective Pickering.
Gorby was airlifted to a hospital on the coast where he is sedated and being held in the intensive care unit, noted the detective.
The police department was notified of the shooting in the 1000 block of N.E. Fifth Street around 3:15 p.m. Friday. When officers arrived on scene they found Gorby sitting outside his home on the cul-de-sac as he waited for the officers.
“They shot him in the cul-de-sac and went off and left him in the street,” explained the detective. “He walked to his house, went inside and a family member called the police.”
The black two-door car occupied by the trio was stopped shortly after the shooting by Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Max Waldron at the intersection of N.W. 10th Street and N.W. Fifth Avenue.
A cell phone apparently stolen from Gorby was found in some shrubbery in front of the Walgreen Pharmacy, 100 N.W. Park St. Like the gun, Queener had apparently tossed it from the car, said Detective Pickering.