Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma on Tuesday said his agency needs the public’s help finding one of the men who shot into a crowd during a block party outside a bar early Saturday morning.
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During the incident near Sanford two women were injured by gunfire, and a deputy shot and killed one of the armed men — an action Lemma said saved other lives among the crowd of partygoers.
Deputies responded to the Cool Breeze Bar on Sipes Avenue in the Midway community around 1 a.m. Saturday after receiving a noise complaint about an unsanctioned block party outside. There were about 200 people in attendance, clogging up the street. That lead several deputies to wade into the crowd to clear it, Lemma said at a Tuesday news conference.
An argument broke out, prompting a nearby deputy to investigate. Someone in the area of the argument then fired a gunshot, causing the deputy to draw his firearm. A different man standing right next to the deputy, 27-year-old Marcus Barnett, of Orange City, then pulled out a semi-automatic .45 caliber handgun and fired two rounds in the middle of the crowded street.
The deputy in turn shot Barnett six times before ordering several bystanders to get on the ground behind him in case the first shooter started firing again. The deputy performed CPR on Barnett, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Deputies recovered Barnett’s handgun, Lemma said.
Lemma praised the deputy, who he did not name, for his quick thinking.
“I cannot underscore enough how proud I am of this deputy…he wasn’t thinking about himself,” Lemma said. “He was thinking about protecting all of those innocent bystanders that were out there on the scene at this time.”
Lemma said Barnett had a long history of arrests. He had been charged with murder, car theft and drug charges, convicted of shooting a firearm into a structure and served prison time for violating his probation in that case, he said. Barnett had a gang tattoo on his hand and had been previously shot because of gang-related activity, he added.
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The sheriff’s office has been in contact with Barnett’s family, a representative of whom has viewed the footage from the body camera the deputy wore during the shooting.
Lemma said his agency needs help in identifying the initial shooter who fired a shot before Barnett. He said the shooter’s muzzle flash can be seen clearly in body camera video, but not that person’s face. He is hoping witnesses saw or captured with their phone footage of that shooting, adding that if the did, they can either contact the sheriff’s office directly or anonymously reach out to Crimeline, 1-800-423-TIPS (8477) for a reward.
One of the two women shot during the incident — she was hit in the leg — is cooperating with investigators while the other, shot in the foot, is not, he said.
Lemma said the woman who is cooperating was possibly shot by the still-at-large suspect. The other could have been shot by that suspect, Barnett or the deputy who fired shots. All six of the shots the deputy fired struck Barnett, but two went through him.
The Saturday incident was not the first time someone was killed during a shooting in that location. A 36-year-old woman was shot and killed at the Cool Breeze Bar in 2016 during a fight.
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