Crime

Deputy returned fire in defensive mode, but gunman wasn't struck and instead died from self-inflicted shotgun blast

Headline Surfer locator / After keeping deputies and a SWAT team at bay for several hours in the 2700 block of Ranch Road near Lake Helen, a man who had been fighting with his girlfriend while drinking, turned a shotgun on himself and fired one round. The man, whose name has not yet been released, was pronounced dead at 3:08 a.m. at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City after being rushed into the ER a little more than an hour earlier. He had been drinking and got into a fight with his girlfriend who suffered minor injuries.

LAKE HELEN -- An armed man who threatened his girlfriend Monday night and then kept responding Volusia County Sheriff's deputies at bay for more than four hours has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an agency spokesman said.

No details released on circumstances of crash or the vehicle involved

Headline Surfer locator / Steven Pindar was airlifted to Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach after smashing up his vehicle Sunday night. Circumstances of the crash were not released by police.

Whereabouts unknown since Monday

Photos for Headline Surfer / Be on the lookout: If you see this Deltona woman, Tonia Schurman, or her three young children, an 8-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl, all shown here, or her youngest, a 4-month-old baby girl, then please call Volusia County Sheriff's deputies at 386-736-5999. If you can't remember the number, then dial 9-1-1. The mother is believed to be traveling in a black, 2003 Isuzu Ascender SUV, with Florida tag BKM195. 

DELTONA -- A 27-year-old Deltona mother who was court-ordered to relinquish parental rights to her three small children -- ages 8, 6 and 4 months -- and hand them over to DCF, instead has fled and Volusia County Sheriff's deputies are asking for the public's help in finding her and her kids, an agency official said this afternoon.

Headline Surfer locator / Brian A. McLane, 34, shown at left in VCBJ mug shot, was arrested Friday in the suffocation murder of his 70-year-old roommate, Richard F. Carton, four days earlier in their residence at 1709 S. Ridgewood Ave., lot No. 8, Edgewater police said.

EDGEWATER -- A 34-year-old man was arrested Friday on a charge of first-degree murder in the suffocation of his 70-year-old roommate four days earlier, Edgewater cops said.

On Friday, Edgewater police arrested 34 year old Brian A. McLane, Carton’s roommate, and charged him with first-degree murder after cops said he confessed to killing the older man by suffocating him until he was dead.

Homicides continue unabated: 5 slain by gunfire, 1 run over & another beaten to death

Headline Surfer snapshot locator map / Shots were fieed just before 5:48 a.m. Sunday in a room at the Sunshine Inn, 12 34 S. Ridgewood, where police found a man dead in room 108.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Gunshot blasts woke up guests inside the Sunshine Inn, a rundown motel on South Ridgewood and when cops got there, they found a black man in his early 40s dead in a pool of blood inside one of the rooms. Police received at least one 9-1-1 at 5:48 a.m. about shots being fired, but very little other than the frightened caller saying he heard the gunfire.

Photo for Headline Surfer / At left is a still snapshot from surveillance video of one of two men who fled Kohl's, 1682 Taylor Road in Port Orange, after sticking a handgun in the store manager's face.

PORT ORANGE -- The cops have issued a BOLO (be on the lookout) for two men who robbed the Kohl’s Department Store while armed with a handgun Saturday night.

Headline Surfer snapshot graphic / This locator map shows the location, 444 Seabreeze Bourlevard, of a deliberate hit-and-run fatality at 3:13 a.m. Sunday.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Cops are continuing their search this early Monday morning for the driver of a small red convertible car who they say deliberately struck and killed a man over the weekend in the rear parking lot of 444 Seavreeze Boulevard.

Police were vague in a brief press release with few details as to what happened. But this is as best what Headline Surfer could surmise from the release: A small red convertible car and a black Range Rover were at the light at Seabreeze and Oleander early Sunday heading westbound when words were exchanged between the driver of the red car and two pedestrians. The driver of the red car got out and a fight broke out.

VCSO: Suspect driver and vehicle located this morning, but no charges yet

DELTONA -- An apparent drug deal in Deltona went horribly wrong late Sunday afternoon, resulting in the death of an 18-year-old man who was dragged down the street by a fleeing motorist, an official with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.

The victim was identified as Tristan De Joy, who witnesses reported walking late Sunday afternoon to the end of Sonnet Court, the same Deltona road where he lives. Next, a pickup truck was spotted driving to the end of the street, where De Joy was.

Orange City woman apprehended in North Carolina

Iredell County, N.C., Sheriff's Office mug shot / The long arm of the law caufght up with Steffani Lariscy, 37, arrested in North Carolina after Volusia County Sheriff's deputies accusaed her in a warrant arrest with stealing nearly $170,000 from her employer and using some of the stolen cash for breast implants. 

ORMOND BEACH -- A former accountant who bragged of spending $7,000 of the thousands of dollars she alledgedly pilfered from her employer while working as an accountant, has been arrested on theft charges after being taken into custody in North Carolina, a Volusia County Sheriff's official said.

The Friends Bank branch, 2222 State Road 44, New Smyrna Beach, is held up Friday by a lone robber shown here in a surveillance snapshot.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A lone man robbed the Friends Bank branch leading to a 9-1-1 call at 11:45 a.m. today, New Smyrna Beach police said, adding he had already run off when they arrived.

Police said the was given an undisclosed amount of money, but they did not say whether he displayed a weapon or implied he had one on him. They also didn't say whether he handed a teller a note or just asked for money.

Physical evidence was collected at the scene, police said, without explaining what that meant.