Double homicide reveals ‘tax office’ was cover for ‘illicit’ club, Florida cops say

Mark Price
·2 min read
36

It’s strange when someone dies at an income tax preparation office at 3:30 a.m., but that’s one of several red flags that led Florida detectives to an unusual conclusion.

A “tax office” operating in a nondescript strip mall north of Orlando was actually an “illicit after-hours club,” where booze and lawlessness were on tap without governance, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office says.

Shootings and stabbings are not uncommon at such clubs, and that’s exactly what happened in the middle of the night Saturday, March 23, officials said.

“When they arrived on scene, deputies found two men who had been shot. They were both pronounced deceased on scene,” the sheriff’s office said. “The shooting occurred in a business labeled as a tax office. However, evidence suggests the office is being used exclusively to host activities after-hours.”

The victims were identified as Errol Sylvester Irving, 56, and Joslyn Michael Gray, 49, the sheriff’s office said in an update.

A motive for the killings has not been found, and there are no suspects.

Detectives did not reveal how long the “disguised” club was in operation in Pine Hills before being discovered.

“We know that Illicit after-hours operations attract criminal activity, violence and illegal drugs,” the sheriff’s office reports. “Too many people have been hurt or killed in violent crimes that take place in and around them.”

In roughly a year, more than a half-dozen violent incidents have been linked to suspected after-hours clubs in Orange County, the sheriff’s office says, including:

  • Four people were shot in the parking lot of Upstate Hall, an after-hours club on South Orange Blossom Trail on Dec. 18, 2023.

  • Three men were shot at a hookah lounge illegally selling alcohol after hours on Old Winter Garden Road on Oct. 29.

  • One man was stabbed at an after-hours bar on Aloma Avenue on Sept. 1.

  • One man was shot in parking lot of a hookah lounge acting as an after-hours club on Turkey Lake Road on July 8.

  • One woman was shot in parking lot of a hookah lounge acting as an after-hours club on West Sand Lake Road on July 5.

  • A man was stabbed at an after-hours club on Edgewater Drive on Jan. 1, 2023.

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