Ackerman Park Shooter Taken Into Custody In NY: Sheriff

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — A 20-year-old man wanted in connection with a fatal shooting at Ackerman Park in December was taken into custody in New York Thursday, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office shared on Facebook.

Nyquan Priester was charged with second-degree murder.

Detectives worked with the agency’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force to find Priester near Utica. He’s awaiting extradition to Sarasota County, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies responded to reports of gunshots at Ackerman Park, which is at 400 Apex Road in Sarasota, just before 11 p.m. on Dec. 29. According to witnesses, a large group of 40 to 50 people were gathered in the park when several shots were fired from the back seat of a vehicle in the parking lot, SCSO said in a news release.

Bystanders saw the victim on the ground with a single gunshot wound to his back and drove him away from the scene, meeting paramedics in another parking lot nearby, where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators learned the vehicle where shots were fired was a gold Hyundai occupied by Priester and Kalvion Turner, 20.

In an interview with detectives, Turner admitted to being in the car at the time of the shooting but denied firing the gun. The driver of the Hyundai later identified Priester as the shooter, the sheriff’s office said.

Detectives learned that hours after the shooting, Turner accompanied Priester to Whitaker Park, located at 1455 North Tamiami Trail in Sarasota, where Priester may have discarded a firearm. With assistance from the Sheriff’s Underwater Recovery Force (SURF), investigators searched the park and surrounding water but couldn’t find a weapon.

On Jan. 13, Turner voluntarily turned himself in at the sheriff’s office headquarters and was charged with principal to second-degree murder with a firearm.