Police: 3 Dead In Central Florida Drug Houses
POSTED: Wednesday, December 12, 2007
MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Three people have been confirmed dead following an incident Wednesday morning in Melbourne at two homes that police said were used to grow marijuana. Investigators believe one of the houses contained a meth lab.
One body has been found at 3681 Turtle Mound Road, while two others are confirmed dead at 4000 Lake Washington Road. Police said they're unsure if one of the homicide victims was the suspected shooter, however, the suspect's tiel-colored Honda Ridgeline is at 4000 Lake Washington.
Police earlier responded to reports of the suspect's vehicle at Lake Washington Road.
Police were searching for a man wearing a black windbreaker with white lettering on the left chest driving a truck, possibly a Honda Ridgeline.
Sheriff’s deputies armed with assault rifles are preventing anyone from entering the Lake Washington neighborhood. The road is blocked at West Lake Washington at Turtle Mound.
Turtle Mound is closed westbound from Pine Cone Road. Commuters should avoid the area until further notice.
Neil Plotkin, a neighbor who lives north of the 3681 Turtle Mound, he heard three or four loud noises, then gunshots. "I thought they were playing paintball over there," he quoted another witness as saying.
"A guy wearing a blazer ran up the driveway, got into a pickup and peeled out," Plotkin said. Plotkin said he called police immediately.
Plotkin said neighborhood residents noticed a lot of problems there. Said the people in the home had been there about a year and a half, and immediately put up a privacy fence after paying cash for the home. They only seemed to be around the house late at night. Plotkin said he's talked to police a lot about activity at the house, and suspected it was a meth lab.
Police asked Plotkin to identify his neighbor's body.
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