Local

FEMA contractor, 2 others face first-degree murder charges in death of Polk County man, deputies say

By Ken Tyndall
By Ken Tyndall
Three men were arrested in Alabama Tuesday on charges connected to the Jan. 3 shooting death of a 68-year-old Polk County man, deputies said.
One of the men, identified as Gerjuan Jackson, was a Federal Emergency Management Agency contractor who met the victim while surveying damage caused by Hurricane Irma, investigators said.
Jackson had purchased two handguns from William Reiss and is accused of shooting him and his roommate, Kenneth Maier, 57, at about 1:45 p.m. Jan. 3, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.
Reiss was killed in the shooting and Maier was critically injured, deputies said.
Along with accomplices, identified as Darril Rankin Jr. and Kenley Campbell, Jackson then allegedly stole as many as 31 firearms from Reiss’ Berkley Road home and took his pickup truck into the woods and set it on fire, investigators said.
“They calculated and planned this very carefully,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Investigators tracked the three men to Alabama, where they were arrested, Judd said.
Rankin and Campbell admitted their role in the incident, but said it was Jackson who pulled the trigger, Judd said.
“Both of them confessed,” he said. “They told us exactly what they did.”
All three suspects were being held at the Mobile County Jail in Alabama pending extradition to Florida, Judd said.
They will face several charges, including first-degree murder, he said.

Cox Media Group

Most Read