Deadly Shooting: Victim Identified

Pinellas County Sheriff's Detectives say an altercation led to the deadly shooting of a Palm Harbor man in the Boot Ranch neighborhood of East Lake early Tuesday morning.

30 year-old Brandon Patrick Baker was killed in the shooting. Deputies responded to the incident around 2:17 a.m. in the 1500 block of Seagull Drive, which is a road just inside the entrance to Boot Ranch. 

Pinellas County Sheriff's Spokesperson Cecilia Barreda says Baker was in one of three vehicles that pulled onto Seagull Drive. After the vehicles pulled over, an altercation began that led to the deadly shooting. 

"Something occurred that prompted all three vehicles to pull onto this road," Barreda told reporters at the scene.

Barreda says Baker did not know the shooter and the incident is not being called road rage. 

Crime tape closed both ends of Seagull Drive for most of the morning while detectives gathered evidence inside and around the three vehicles involved in the incident. According to Barreda, the victim was in one vehicle, the shooter was in another, and a witness was in a third vehicle. Vehicles inside the crime scene included a black BMW, a white pickup truck and a silver/grey colored compact car. Investigators refused to identify who was in each of the vehicles.

Seagull Drive winds around a large pond and leads to the entrance of Egret's Landing Luxury Apartments. It is a popular walking area for residents in this upscale community, many of whom stopped to watch detectives as they worked Tuesday.

Ricky LLaguno has lived in the area for two years. This morning, he went to walk his dog, Kobe around the pond and encountered crime scene tape blocking their walking route. LLaguno says he's never seen anything like this happen here.

"I'm shocked, I thought it was a traffic stop. I saw the van and thought something must be going on," he said.

Another resident, Nicholas, also regularly walks his dog, Gucci around the pond. "It's weird, we've never had any problems," he said.

The crime scene also created a snag for school bus service to Carwise and Tarpon Middle Schools. The school bus stop is located on Seagull Drive where detectives were gathering evidence. Pinellas County Schools sent a representative to help students get on the bus at a different location nearby. The kids walked by the crime scene tape on their way out of the apartment complex to their temporary bus stop.