Moran being held under total bond of $125,000
Colby Douglas Moran, 24, of 2366 Laurel Road in Nokomis, has been charged with three felony counts in connection with a shooting in Venice that occurred late in the night of Saturday, July 12, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has reported.
The location was 889 U.S. 41 Bypass North, Moran’s Probable Cause Affidavitsays. That is the site of the Outlook Pub, the affidavit notes.
He formally was arrested at 3:01 a.m. on July 13 at the agency’s Cattleridge Boulevard headquarters, the affidavit adds. His total bond was set at $125,000, his jail booking record notes. His arraignment has been scheduled for Aug. 14.
He was still in custody late in the morning of July 15, The Sarasota News Leaderlearned from the Sheriff’s Office’s Corrections Division records.
The formal charges are aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill; aggravated battery with a deadly weapon; and discharging a firearm from a vehicle, Moran’s booking record says.
At 12:35 a.m. on July 13, a Sheriff’s Office lieutenant issued what the agency calls a “Flash Report” about the incident, noting that an investigation was underway.
The Probable Cause Affidavit for Moran explains that, about 10:46 p.m. on July 12, deputies responded to a report of a shooting at the Outlook Pub. Then an officer with the Venice Police Department notified 911 Dispatch that he had conducted a traffic stop on a 2001 Ford pickup truck at 442 U.S. 41 Bypass North in Venice. After the vehicle came to a stop, the affidavit continues, the driver — later identified as Moran — “threw his keys out of the vehicle and put his hands out the window.”
The officer “observed that the vehicle had a broken passenger window” and then found that Moran had a firearm on his person.
When deputies talked with the victim, the affidavit says, that person “claimed he had been shot. Deputies observed a small abrasion to [the victim’s] right shin.”
The victim also told the deputies that he “had been involved in a verbal altercation with Colby when both parties drew firearms upon each other.” Afterward, the victim reported, Colby climbed into his truck and prepared to leave the premises. However, the victim continued, “as he was leaving the parking lot, Colby fired a series of gunshots from his vehicle at [the victim],” who was unable to return fire because of a malfunction with his weapon, the affidavit notes.
Two videos corroborate victim’s statement
The detective who took over the investigation wrote in the affidavit that he had reviewed video from a vehicle in the parking lot of the HCA Florida Venice Doctors Emergency facility that had a dashcam in it. In that video, which had a 10:42 p.m. time stamp, the detective observed a man “standing on the north side of the building with his arm outstretched, pointing towards a dark colored truck that [was] backing out of a parking space,” the affidavit continues.
As the truck began to move forward, the detective observed “what appeared to be a muzzle flash,” and the detective “could hear four gunshots coming from inside of the vehicle,” the affidavit adds.
As the truck was leaving the parking lot, the affidavit says, the detective did not observe any return gunfire from the victim.
In a second video, “obtained from the Outlook Pub surveillance camera positioned on the north side of the building, facing the parking spaces” where Moran’s truck was parked, the detective observed two people, whom the detective identified as the victim and Colby. They were “standing near the bed of a truck in the parking lot,” the affidavit adds.
Although the video had no audio, the affidavit says that it appeared the two people were engaged in a verbal altercation.
Then, about 1 minute and 3 seconds into the video, Moran walked toward his truck, entered the driver’s side of it, retrieved an object from it and placed that object in his waistband, the affidavit points out. “Simultaneously,” it continues, the victim “walked over to the passenger side door of his truck. At 1 minute and 26 seconds [into the video],” the affidavit says, Moran approached the rear passenger side of the victim’s truck as the victim removed a firearm from his vehicle and pointed it at Moran. The victim continued to point the weapon at Moran as Moran walked back to his truck, climbed inside and backed out of his parking space, the affidavit adds.
The victim walked back to his truck, as seen in the video, and pointed his firearm at Moran as Moran drove away, the affidavit notes, as seen in the video.
During an interview with the detective, the affidavit says, the victim reported that he did not know Moran but the victim believed he had seen Moran at the pub prior to that night.
Then the victim told the detective that he was in the parking lot with a friend when Moran approached him, asking the victim whether he knew where Moran “could buy drugs,” the affidavit continues. The victim told Moran to let him alone, and Moran “became confrontational,” telling the victim, “ ‘Come to my truck, I got something for you,’ ” the affidavit adds.
As he observed Moran walking toward the driver’s side of Moran’s truck, the victim reported, the victim believed that Moran was planning to remove a firearm from the truck. That was why the victim entered his own vehicle “and obtained his firearm,” the affidavit says.
When Moran walked back toward him, the victim continued, Moran’s “shirt was pulled around the firearm making it visible,” the affidavit points out. Then the victim observed Moran’s “hand positioned near the firearm as if to draw it.”
The victim pointed his firearm at Moran “and ordered him to get in his vehicle and leave or [the victim] would shoot him,” the affidavit adds.
After Moran began to drive away, the affidavit continues, Moran “fired multiple shots [through] his passenger side vehicle window.” The victim told the detective that “he was struck in his shin by what he believed was a ricochet and immediately felt a burning sensation and pain in his shin.”
Then the victim acknowledged that he did try to return fire, the affidavit says, “but his weapon did not discharge.” He added that he had cleaned his firearm the previous day and had failed to chamber a round afterward, the affidavit notes.
The victim’s “statement corroborated the video evidence,” the affidavit points out.
A News Leader review of 12th Judicial Circuit Court records in Sarasota County, as well as records maintained by the Charlotte County Clerk of Court, found no prior cases involving Moran.