Shoplifting suspects won't face murder charge in Colonial Plaza police shooting

ORLANDO, Fla. — A 32-year-old woman and a 26-year-old woman who were accused of shoplifting at a Marshalls store before their accomplice was fatally shot by two Orlando police officers earlier this month won't be formally charged in his death, prosecutors said.

Police said Jocelyn M. Villot and Brittany L. Chandler had been charged with felony murder, grand theft and resisting an officer without violence on May 7 after Master Police Officer Anthony Wongshue and Officer Juan Abreu shot Juan Alberto Silva, 32, in the parking lot of Colonial Plaza.

Investigators said the officers were responding to a nearby crash when they were called for a reported shoplifting at the store.

The officers had asked Silva to stop his van, but he drove away and they shot him, police said.

During a hearing Thursday, a prosecutor told a judge there doesn’t appear to be evidence that the women encouraged the driver to commit a violent felony, the state attorney's office said.

Villot and Chandler stole more than $700 in merchandise, an arrest report said.

The officers were uninjured.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.

Chandler was out on probation before the incident at Marshalls, so she will not be allowed to post bail.

Villot faces charges of grand theft and resisting an officer without violence and has a $2,500 bail.

Cox Media Group