‘Really surreal;’ neighbor describes weekend homicide in Indian River County
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY − Jessica Sadley said her 9-year-old daughter ran across the house and said someone was banging on the back slider door.
Sadley, 28, said it was a person from a home in the 600 block of 23rd Street Southwest across the street from her home.
“It was just chaos,” Sadley said Monday. “He was like, ‘someone just shot up the house.’ He was bleeding everywhere.”
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers on Sunday said in a social media video that a homicide occurred at the address, saying a 911 call was received at 3:47 a.m.
“We’re currently in the process of serving a search warrant on the residence. I can tell you, the residence involved is one that we are very familiar with,” Flowers said. “It’s one that we’ve been to numerous times so far this year. We’re familiar with a couple of the residents that are inside of the house.”
Sheriff’s spokespersons declined to release additional information Monday, such as the name of the deceased or whether more than one person was dead.
Meanwhile, Sadley, who said she called 911, said the person that came to her home indicated “someone had broke in and was just shooting everywhere.”
“He was covered in blood on our back patio,” she said. “So it was terrifying.”
Yellow tape surrounded the tan, single-story home, which is in southern Indian River County at the intersection of 6th Way Southwest. A front window was broken and sheriff’s officials sporadically came and went from the residence. The home is owned by Michael and Amanda Baker, according to the Indian County Property Appraiser’s website.
Sadley pointed out a bullet hole in the bedroom window of her home, though she said she heard no gunfire.
“I thought I was dreaming, to be honest,” she said. “I remember hearing glass shatter, but I didn’t think anything of it, because I was just waking up from like a deep sleep, and then within seconds, my daughter was running across the house to us.”
Sadley said a 19-year-old pregnant woman died in the incident.
She thought the man who ran to her home was the boyfriend of the deceased.
“He also jumped through the window to escape, from what he said to us,” Sadley said. “So he was cut up pretty bad from the glass shards.”
Another neighbor, Adelina Cruz, 65, said she thought four people lived in the home.
She said law enforcement and fire rescue officials frequently were at the residence. She mentioned a variety of what she indicated were unsavory activities occurring there.
Cruz said she was “shocked in a way, but in a way not” when investigators indicated a homicide happened.
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Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: ‘Really surreal,’ neighbor says of homicide in Indian River County
