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Hernando Today

Two City Shootings Wednesday

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By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: September 12, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Wednesday dawned in Brooksville with a shooting and - 90 minutes before midnight - ended with another.

No one was hurt in either case, but the incidents add to the growing number of shootings in the city this year.

Around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, a woman called police to report that the car she was riding in was shot at near Hale's Liquors on E. Jefferson Street.

The car and its driver had returned to Citrus County. She was left at an auto shop on Ponce De Leon Boulevard.

Chief George Turner has his theories about what happened, but without solid evidence or a positive ID of the suspects, there's not much left to investigate.

Around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, two masked men approached a forklift operator unlocking the gate of an E. Jefferson Street business. As the man fled on the forklift, multiple shots were fired in his direction. The motives behind that incident are still under investigation.

During one weekend in early August, there were two separate shootings that resulted in injuries, both outside the city limits but in areas considered Brooksville. That was followed by a drug-related shooting on Sept. 5 at Tanglewood Apartments that injured a teenager.

The city has recorded two murders this year: One was an unsolved shooting that was drug-related; in the other a 69-year-old man was beaten and strangled.

Turner said violence is not escalating in the city; it's just that more people are reporting the inherent violence in the drug trade.

"Hopefully this is just a bad spell," he said.

Stranded Boaters Rescued Overnight

BAYPORT - A pair of missing boaters who drifted for nine hours were rescued by a deputy early Wednesday morning.
Joseph Sanders and his 13-year-old son set out for Bayport Park around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and were due back home around 11 p.m. When Sanders' wife woke up around 4 a.m., they still had not made it back, so she called for help.

A deputy discovered Sanders' Nissan Xterra and boat trailer still parked at the Bayport pier, but no sign of the missing boaters. Out on the water, the Coast Guard, Fish and Wildlife and Hernando County marine deputies were plying the waters when they came across the victims near O'Connell Rock.

The missing boaters were cold but otherwise OK.

Sanders said his boat broke down around 8 p.m. and strong wind and waves pushed his bass boat toward the rock. He had no cell phone, VHF radio or flares to signal for help, a report states. He was given several warnings and a citation for no visual distress device.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

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