Sarasota police execute search warrant connected to Osprey Avenue murder case
SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — Sarasota police officers were back in Newtown Wednesday, executing a search warrant at a home along Maple Avenue.
SWAT, K-9 Units, and officers surrounded the property on the ground as drones flew up above.
That home sits about two blocks away from the corner of 31st Street and Osprey Avenue, where a 28-year-old father was killed in his front yard last week. Police told 8 On Your Side the search warrant was related to the ongoing homicide investigation.
Police announced the arrest of two teens Tuesday. Tujuan Byrd, 15, and Ladarius Goodman-Mills, 14, made their first appearances before a judge Wednesday, hours before the search took place on Maple Ave.
8 On Your Side was not allowed inside the courtroom because the suspects are teens. State Attorney Ed Brodsky said the court made an order to hold the teens in a secured juvenile detention center for the next 21 days. That time window could be extended down the line.
It remains unclear whether the teens will be charged as adults. Brodsky says it is too early to say because this remain an active and ongoing investigation.
Sarasota Police Chief Rex Troche said it is “heartbreaking” to see two young teenagers involved in deadly gun violence and is calling on parents and guardians within the community to keep a close eye on their kids.
“Unfortunately, in our incident here, some of these kids don’t come from perfect homes. Some of them are not raised by a mom and dad. Some of them have a grandmother that is raising them or a single parent and that is hard,” Troche said. “What we try to do is we try to be the stopgap for that. We try to become coaches and teachers and mentors and hopefully they will reach out to us when they need help. Unfortunately, we are not going to reach out to every kid out there; that is just a fact, but we are really doing our best every day.”
As the summer months approach, the police department is working to keep kids and teens engaged through its Community Relations Unit.
Funding from the Florida Attorney General’s office paid for two souped up trucks that the agency will use to connect with kids. The vehicles are wrapped in bright, colorful prints and will hold videogames, remote control cars, drones, and other tools to engage kids and teens.
“What we are trying to do through our CRU program is show them there is something beyond their walls,” Troche said. “Unfortunately, a lot of these kids only see a five block radius of what is out in the world and they don’t understand that there is way more to it. We want them to see it to be it. So we are not just bringing in police officers, we are bringing an entrepreneur that will talk to these kids and let them know that there is a better life, you’ve just got to continue to work hard and that no one has already written your narrative, you write your own narrative.”
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