Punta Gorda Couple Survives Bar Shooting

Last week, a night of fun ended in terror after twenty-five-year-old Kelly Stephens and her boyfriend, forty-one-year-old Ashton Martin, were shot at an establishment on George Price Street in Punta Gorda. Following the incident, police have officially charged twenty-year-old Derry Bennett with two counts of attempted murder. Assistant Superintendent of Police, Stacy Smith, has more details on his arrest.

 

ASP Stacy Smith, Staff Officer

“During the investigation, police reviewed several surveillance video footages, which have proved to be of evidential value. Bennett, who had been identified as a person of interest in this matter, was initially detained shortly after the incident, and at that time of his detention, he gave police a false name. He was charged for mischievous act and was subsequently released as at that time. Sufficient information was not there to levy charge against him. As the investigators continued their investigation, they were able to amass the necessary evidence that would require the charges to be levied and a wanted person. Poster was subsequently made and an affirmation message was distributed. As efforts to locate Bennett within Punta Town prove fruitless. The officers in the Western region were able to apprehend Mr. Bennett in Camalote Village, and he was subsequently handed over to the investigators in Punta Gorda where he was charged for attempted murder. The motive that we are suspecting to have caused this incident is drug related. As a matter of fact, as a part of police investigation into that incident, an operation was launched by the GI3 personnel in their continued efforts to stem the illicit trafficking of drugs in that area. This search was conducted at a residence on Queen Street and an unoccupied property, and during the course of that search, a nine millimeter pistol was recovered, two nine millimeter magazines, one of which is an extended magazine, thirty-one live rounds of a thirty-nine  millimeter ammunition, and approximately sixty grams of crack cocaine separated in just under three hundred parcels off small parcels. The firearm believed to have been used in the shooting of Martin and Stevens was packaged and submitted to the National Forensic and Science Services Laboratory for them to conduct testing to determine whether it was in fact used in that incident.”