The victim was identified as Ryan Brooks.
Late Thursday night, Panama City Beach Police announced the arrest of the following suspects:
-Joshua Smith, 22,
-Randy Jackson, 24,
-Alyssa Watford, 17,
-Joseph Cannizzo, 25,
-Nicole Philbrook, 26,
When police arrived, they found Brooks on the ground in the parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds.
After a day-long investigation, police pieced together what happened.
Police said
At the same time, investigators said Brooks and Cannizzo planned to rob Smith when Smith arrived to buy the marijuana.
They met in The Club parking lot, where Cannizzo and Brooks, while armed, tried to rob Smith, police said. Brooks then approached Jackson, who shot Brooks several times. Smith fled and
“This is the first homicide we’ve had in four or five years,” said Panama City Beach Police Chief Drew Whitman.
J.R. Trotter, a Club resident, believes he may have crossed paths with the victim just moments before the shooting occurred.
“It’s weird that I was right near it,” he said.
Trotter had the night off from his job as an overnight stocker at Walmart. He said he got bored and walked to the nearby Chevron to buy a Red Bull.
On the walk home, Trotter noticed a young male sitting in a vehicle parked in front of the gated complex’s leasing office. He noticed the interior lights on inside the car, but thought nothing of its presence.
In the same moment, Trotter passed a male and female on foot headed in the direction of the parked car. He nodded “hello” to the couple and continued to walk to his apartment in the back of the complex.
“I never heard the gunshots,” Trotter said. He was listening to music with earbuds as he walked home from the store.
He said he finally realized something had happened when he later heard a helicopter circling the vicinity.
A couple hours after his first trip, Trotter decided to walk to the store again. This time, he walked past the same parking lot barricaded with police cars and yellow tape. An officer approached Trotter as he passed to ask if he’d seen anything prior to the shooting. Trotter described his earlier encounter, unaware at the time that someone had died from the incident.
Trotter said he was asked by an investigator to identify a male suspect.
“It’s one of them shockers,” he said, seeming unphased by what happened. He described The Club as a “calm and peaceful” place to live, but said he saw homicides “all the time” where he is originally from in
“I don’t care what the situation was, I feel bad for whoever got shot,” he said. “A couple more minutes, and it could have been me.”
An earlier version of this report is posted below:
The victim was identified as Ryan Brooks.
Three people were in custody Thursday night, but had not been charged, police said.
When police arrived, they found Brooks on the ground in the parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds.
“This is the first homicide we’ve had in four or five years,” said
The homicide is believed to be drug-related, since narcotics were recovered at the scene. Brooks was previously arrested in 2012 for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, to which he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to probation last month.
“We have three people of interest we have detained that we are questioning,” Chief Whitman said.
J.R. Trotter, a Club resident, believes he may have crossed paths with the victim just moments before the shooting occurred.
“It’s weird that I was right near it,” he said.
Trotter had the night off from his job as an overnight stocker at Walmart. He said he got bored and walked to the nearby Chevron to buy a Red Bull.
On the walk home, Trotter noticed a young male sitting in a vehicle parked in front of the gated complex’s leasing office. He noticed the interior lights on inside the car, but thought nothing of its presence.
In the same moment, Trotter passed a male and female on foot headed in the direction of the parked car. He nodded “hello” to the couple and continued to walk to his apartment in the back of the complex.
“I
He said he finally realized something had happened when he later heard a helicopter circling the vicinity.
A couple hours after his first trip, Trotter decided to walk to the store again. This time, he walked past the same parking lot barricaded with police cars and yellow tape. An officer approached Trotter as he passed to ask if he’d seen anything prior to the shooting. Trotter described his earlier encounter, unaware at the time that someone had died from the incident.
Trotter said he was asked by an investigator to identify a male suspect.
“It’s one of them shockers,” he said, seeming unphased by what happened. He described The Club as a “calm and peaceful” place to live, but said he saw homicides “all the time” where he is originally from in
“I don’t care what the situation was, I feel bad for whoever got shot,” he said. “A couple more minutes, and it could have been me.”
PANAMA CITY BEACH — One person is dead and a two persons of interest are being questioned after an early morning homicide in the parking lot of an apartment complex, police said.
Police aren’t identifying the victim yet until his next of kin are identified.
Panama City Beach Police Chief Drew Whitman said police believe the motive of the shooting is “a drug deal gone bad.”
“We did recover narcotics on the scene,” he said.
Police responded to a call just before 1 a.m. Thursday of shots being fired at The Club apartment complex off Richard Jackson Boulevard in Panama City Beach.
Officers arrived a few minutes later and found a white male in his early 20s on the ground in the parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds. EMS transported him to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead 35 minutes later.
For about an hour police, with the assistance of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, used a helicopter and K-9 unit to search for suspects. The men who are being questioned were picked up in two locations in Panama City, one on 17th Street and another on Arthur Avenue.
Check back later for updates