HCSO: Man arrested in Brown Sugar Festival shooting tried to buy surveillance footage

A man accused of attempting to destroy evidence in a shooting at the Brown Sugar Festival in Clewiston that killed a Lee County woman was trying to buy surveillance footage that may have captured the shooting.

The May 1 shooting injured four others and killed 20-year-old Evereonna Sankey with a single gunshot wound to the head, according to an arrest report for Larance De’Angelo Humphrey.

The shooting occurred on Harlem Academy Avenue and Eleventh Street just before 10 p.m.

Humphrey, of Tallahassee, was arrested after he attempted to buy surveillance footage at a nearby store that had cameras pointed in the direction of the shooting, the arrest report states.

A worker told deputies that Humphrey, known as “LA”, attempted to buy the footage. He said Humphrey had the body language of a “worried person.”

“‘LA’ stated that he wanted to buy it to prevent his ‘homeboy’ who did the shooting from being identified and prevent the police from capturing evidence as to who did the shooting. ‘LA’ also stated he knew the person and he didn’t want them to go to jail,” the arrest report states.

The shooter has not been arrested.

Humphrey was arrested on a warrant May 5.

His charges include accessory after the fact of first-degree murder and destruction of evidence. He remains in the Hendry County Jail on $200,000 bond.

Rev. Gwen Patrick-Griffiths is anxious of deputies to find the gunman responsible for the shooting.

“The whole community is mourning over this,” said Patrick-Griffiths, founder of the Harlem Academy Alumni Association.

She helped organize the festival.

And she knows Sankey’s mother as well.

“One of the last things I remember that mother saying to me is Reverend Patrick I love you and I love her too,” Patrick-Griffiths said.

Patrick-Griffiths knows any video of the shooting could lead to the killer.

“That would be very important evidence if they can capture it so it should not have been tampered with,” Patrick-Griffiths said.

Solving the crime would be a step in the right direction for the Harlem Community, she said.

“This whole situation is so, it’s so hurtful.”

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-8477.