Multiple Fort Myers shootings leave investigators wondering if they are connected

Three shootings in Fort Myers have left investigators with questions on whether or not they are connected.

The first shooting was a drive-by shooting on Ortiz Avenue and State Road 82 that killed one person.

The second shooting happened early Monday morning at Jones Walker Apartment Complex on Blount Street and two people were injured.

Monday night’s shooting occurred around 10 p.m. along Raleigh and Second Streets during a memorial service for the person who was killed in the first shooting.

So are these three shootings connected? Detectives are not saying.

A candlelight vigil for on Fort Myers shooting victim suddenly ended in gunfire.

“I instantly thought something was really tragically wrong,” said neighbor Linda Peterson.

Neighbors said they heard six to seven gunshots. One person was taken to the hospital.

“[It was a] surprise because, in reality, this area, for me, was safe. It’s a little close to a tougher area, but I didn’t know it was that unsafe,” Peterson said.

The shooting on Second Street was the third in the city since Saturday and the recent violence has neighbors scared to leave their homes.

“Nowhere is safe, not just my neighborhood,” Peterson said, especially with the gunmen still on the run.

“It just takes time, it’s going to take time,” said FMPD Chief Derrick Diggs.

Police didn’t talk with us Tuesday about the string of shootings, but Diggs said at the beginning of the month about how they need your help to solve these crimes.

“Because we got to have the help of the community to help protect the community, and if you have citizens in neighborhoods that don’t want to work with the police, that don’t want to report crime, that don’t want to show up and that don’t want to let us know what’s going on in the community, it’s going to be very, very difficult and very, very challenging,” Diggs said.

With one person dead and at least three others hurt, people living close to the gunfire have one message: “They just gotta stop the violence. They just gotta stop hurting each other. It doesn’t solve anything.”

Detectives are looking for a white Jeep like the one shown above. They say the suspect in the drive-by may have been in an SUV with damage on the driver’s side, including a missing mirror.