EUSTIS – A 23-year-old man is recovering from a bullet wound to his head, and the Eustis Police Department is asking for the public’s head in locating the suspect believed to have fired the weapon, who has a criminal history and spent time in prison. The department is also warning that the man they’re looking for, Justin Terrell Jenkins, is armed and dangerous.
The victim, Brandon Deland Ranking, had told officers that Jenkins shot at him, and the bullet grazed the back of his head. He was treated and released from Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares.
Officers from the Eustis Police Department responded to a call around 1:30 on Wednesday, Feb. 29 from the hospital, which reported treating a gunshot victim. When officers got to the hospital, Ranking told them he had been leaving a house on Glover Street in Eustis when the attack occurred.
Ranking told officers that as he was walking out of the house, Jenkins fired one round from a small caliber gun, which grazed the back of Ranking’s head.
After interviewing Ranking, officers went to the house at 230 Glover St. in Eustis to interview anyone else who had witnessed the incident, and to check and see if anyone else there needed medical attention. No one did.
The witnesses told the officers that Jenkins had left the house after the shooting, and driven off in a Chevrolet Camaro.
Because this is an active investigation, no further details about what happened at the Grover Street home, or what prompted the shooting, are being released at this time.
Officers secured the home to preserve the integrity of the crime scene, then issued a BOLO (Be On The Lookout) alert for a 2012 silver Chevrolet Camaro with a tag 593XRE.
“The driver of the Camaro should be a black male, Justin Terrell Jenkins, who is armed and dangerous with an unknown type of weapon,” noted Officer Robert Simken, assistant public information officer for the Eustis Police Department, is his report on the case. “We are asking the public to contact the Eustis Police Department, as soon as possible, if they see Justin Terrell Jenkins or the Chevrolet Camaro and report the whereabouts.”
Anyone with information on this case can call the department at 352-357-4121.
The shooting, Simken said, is still under investigation and any updates on the case will be released as quickly as possible.
Jenkins, 19, has a past criminal record. He was arrested in Lake County and charged in March 2009 with the sale and possession of cocaine, and given a sentence of two years, five months and 15 days in a state prison. He served that sentence at the Apalachee East Unit Correctional Institute in Snead, Fla. from July 16, 2009 until Aug. 20, 2011.
According to the Florida Department of Correction’s web site on released inmates, Terrell is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 154 pounds.
Ranking also has a criminal record. He was arrested in Lake County and in May 2010 was found guilty of selling cocaine and given a two year prison sentence, which he served at the Franklin Correctional Institute in Carrabelle, Fla. He was released on Feb. 8, 2012.
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