A pair of Florida business partners ended up settling a dispute at work in a very permanent fashion this past week when the pair brandished guns and shot each other to death.
This past Thursday, the two businessmen were part of an argument at their Lakeland, Florida, auto body service shop. The argument quickly spiraled out fo control and turned into a shootout, explained a spokesperson for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. One of the owners of the business was killed as soon as the fight started, while the other died shortly afterward in the wake of their attempt to run away from the murder in his truck.
“This was an avoidable tragedy stemming from a disagreement between business partners,” explained Grady Judd, the Sheriff of Pole COunty, in a release sent out to Fox News. “We all have an obligation to our friends, our families, and society at large to talk things out instead of turning to violence. These men would still be alive today, and their families would not be grieving, had they been able to work out their differences civilly.”
As explained by the sheriff’s office, business partners Xavier Figueroa, 39, and Akeido Bennett, 31, who both come from the city of Kissimmee, were involved in an extended dispute that resulted in both of the men opening fire on each other. Deputies explained to Fox News that Bennett died at the scene of the shooting. Figueroa attempted to flee the area in his truck but ended up succumbing to his own injuries later that day.
The pair of men were reportedly the co-owners of a shop situated on U.S. Route 92 out in an unincorporated part of Lakeland. The sheriff’s office chose to not publically release the name of the business they owned, but a cursory search through Google Maps quickly discovered that the address is of a business named Service On Site of Central Florida, Inc., an auto repair business. Upon inspection of the street view, pictures show a garage next to a lot of cars.
Currently, no other suspects are thought to be on the run, police authorities explained to local news outlet WFLA, but the incident is still officially under investigation.
In other areas of the state this past month, another man allegedly killed his own mom because he claimed that she never “pushed” him to try and “be a man.”
“On November 29, 2022, at approximately 4:13 PM, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a possible stabbing at a residence in Kissimmee,” explained the sheriff’s office in a social media post. “Upon arrival, it was determined that one female was deceased, and another female had severe lacerations to her hands.”
A motion seeking pre-trial detention submitted to Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, which was found by NBC News, uneiled that the suspect’s sister was the one who was discovered injured.
“The victim heard their mother screaming for her life,” the documents explained.
“When the victim came out of her room, she observed the defendant stabbing their mother multiple times with a kitchen knife,” stated the motion. “The victim attempted to intervene and sustained multiple deep lacerations to her hands from the defendant cutting her.”