Victims identified in weekend Cape Coral shooting spree

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CAPE CORAL, Fla.- The two victims killed in multiple shootings Sunday in Cape Coral were identified Wednesday by the Cape Coral Police Department.

Detectives say 54-year-old Jeremy C. Taylor and 26-year-old Sean Strickland were shot to death before police engaged 31-year-old Christopher Moran, later identified as the gunman, in a shootout along Skyline Boulevard.

Police say Taylor was the motorcyclist who was gunned down in the first shooting along the 2600 block of Skyline Boulevard shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday.

As officers worked the first shooting, a call came in about the gunman at the Circle K located on Chiquita Boulevard and Cape Coral Parkway West. Strickland, a store employee, was killed while another store patron, 61-year-old Richard Huwiler, sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, police said.

Strickland had only recently moved to Southwest Florida.

“He was a good guy. He wanted to build a future down here, wanted to start a family,” said Marc Coachman, Strickland’s friend. “Just a very bad, unfortunate situation to have his life swept up from under him like that.”

About four minutes after the second shooting, authorities located Moran’s vehicle near the 5100 block of Skyline Boulevard.

Officers opened fire after Moran “violently resisted officers.”

Moran was killed in the shootout, police said. Inside his vehicle at the time were also 32-year-old Maria A. Rodriguez and 14-month-old Christopher Moran Jr. who were both injured and taken to the hospital as trauma alerts. Both remain hospitalized at this time, police said.

Moran’s neighbor, Chris Flaker, says he saw all three just minutes before the killings. He says Moran pointed a shotgun in his face, asking him about an abduction.

“I said ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ And at that point, Maria started going ‘Chris, Chris no! Let’s go!'” Flaker recalled. “So he proceeded to put the guns, slapped it down. I walked away. He picks it up, grabs Maria and the baby and they sped out.”

The 14-month-old is now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families, DCF confirmed Tuesday.

A motive behind the shootings is still unknown. Police have not detailed whether Moran knew the victims prior to the shootings.

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