PALM BAY, Fla. — A man was murdered in a busy Palm Bay shopping plaza in the middle of the day Tuesday. Police said the man was shot after an argument in front of Tropical Smoothie Cafe on Palm Bay Road and Babcock Street (see map).
Police said the boss of the man who was shot saw him walking through the parking lot of Sable Palms Square. The employee was owed money and, instead of getting the $10 he was owed, police said he ended up with several fatal gunshot wounds.
Hoards of people gathered around the Palm Bay shopping center in disbelief that someone could kill a person in the middle of a busy parking lot. Latosha Mays and her friend were running errands when they heard the gunfire and saw 25-year-old Rayshon Kennerly collapse.
Mays pulled her car up to him and they called 911. Kennerly's brother was panicking.
"His brother was like, ‘Please help me. Please help me,'" Mays said.
But within seconds, the young man was dead.
"He didn't even move. He just laid there. We were trying to tell him, ‘Keep breathing, keep breathing,'" Mays described.
Police said it all began around noon when Kennerly's boss, George Fields, drove his black Lincoln Navigator through the parking lot and saw Kennerly walking with his brother. Investigators said he went home, got his gun and came back to confront Kennerly.
Officers said the pair had been arguing for two days over $10 that Fields owed Kennerly for an auto-detailing job the victim did for his boss. An eyewitness said he saw them start to argue.
"We heard them say the fact that uh, ‘We'll get you back when you're back in our neighborhood,' like they almost knew each other already," witness Kevin Sheppard said.
Kevin Sheppard said Fields got out and shot him at least four times at point-blank range.
"Right in broad daylight and they weren't even in a hurry they just pulled away slowly. Scary," Kevin Sheppard said.
Police found the Lincoln Navigator at Fields' home and had the man in custody within an hour of the shooting.
WFTV
