Suspect arrested in one May 5 shooting in Sarasota while Police Department continues to investigate that case and second shooting the same day

25-year-old Sarasota man charged with Attempted Murder and Aggravated Assault

Ladelvin Grimsley. Image courtesy Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office

The Sarasota Police Department is investigating two shootings that occurred on Thursday, May 5, between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., the department announced on the afternoon of May 6.

Detectives are uncertain whether the incidents are related, Genevieve Judge, the department’s public information officer, added in a news release. However, an arrest was made in one of the cases, she noted.

Ladelvin J. Grimsley, 25, of 2043 28th St. in Sarasota, has been charged with Attempted Murder and Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, according to the Probable Cause Affidavits. He initially was being held without bond in the Sarasota County Jail, with his arraignment set for June 10, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office’s Corrections Division records showed.

However, when The Sarasota News Leader checked the Corrections Division records on May 11, it found that total bond of $350,000 had been set on the two charges — $250,000 for the Attempted Murder count — and Grimsley had been released after working with the bond company Willette’s Bail Bonds, which has an office located at 3080 N. Washington Blvd. in Sarasota.

He was released on May 10, the records note.

The incident in which Grimsley allegedly was involved occurred just after 5 p.m. in the 1800 block of 23rd Street in Sarasota, Judge of the Police Department reported.

This map shows the 1800 block of 23rd Street in Sarasota. Image from Google Maps

The second shooting occurred just after 6:30 p.m. near the intersection of University Parkway and North Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41), Judge wrote. Sarasota Police officers believe persons in two cars “with multiple people began shooting at one another,” Judge added. One vehicle in the area that was not connected to the shooting was hit by bullets, she pointed out. “No injuries have been reported,” Judge wrote.

The detective who wrote the narrative in the affidavits involving Grimsley said that, upon his arrival on the 23rd Street scene, he learned that two Black males had been transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital “with several non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.”

He was unable to speak with either of them, the officer added, “because they were sedated and being prepared for surgery.”

The officer then noted that he talked with an eyewitness, “who wished to remain anonymous.” That person reported that he was sitting on the front porch of a building when he saw a white Hyundai Sonata pull up and park directly in front of the witness’ location, facing west on 23rd Street, the affidavit said.

Although the vehicle’s windows were tinted, the affidavit noted, the witness told the detective that “he could see two males inside the [Sonata],” a driver and a passsenger in the front.

Then the witness recounted that a second person crossed the street and walked in front of the vehicle. The witness told the detective that “a light-skinned male with dreads rolled down the window” and asked the second person why he was looking inside the car. The witness added that that was “when the argument ensued,” the affidavit added.

This is a view of the entrance to the 1800 block of 23rd Street in Sarasota. Image from Google Maps

When “the light-skinned male opened the passenger side door to get out of the vehicle,” the affidavit said, “he held an assault rifle.”

The witness then reported that the man outside the Sonata told the passenger, “[I]f you point the rifle at me, I will beat your ass,” the affidavit said. Nonetheless, the passenger did point the rifle at the man, “and the two started fighting and fell to the ground,” the affidavit continued. After they were on the ground, the affidavit added, “the light-skinned male started recklessly shooting the rifle.”

At that point, the affidavit noted, the driver emerged from the vehicle “and started shooting a gold handgun recklessly at [the victim] and the light-skinned male while they were on the ground.”

Somehow, the witness told the detective, the victim “was able to get up from the ground and run behind nearby apartments to get away from the gunfire,” the affidavit said. The light-skinned male also stood up and re-entered the passenger side of the Sonata, which then headed west on 23rd Street, the affidavit pointed out.

The witness said that when the other man returned from the rear of the apartment complex, the witness noticed that the man “was bleeding from the chest area,” the affidavit noted. The man was able to get into the vehicle of a friend, who rushed the man to the hospital, the affidavit said.

The witness told the officer that “he feared for his own life due to several projectiles hitting the side of the building” in front of which he was sitting, the affidavit noted.

Just before 10 p.m. that day, the affidavit added, a detective “administered a photo lineup” to the witness, who identified the light-skinned male as Ladelvin Grimsley.

“Both these cases remain active and ongoing investigations,” Judge, the Police Department’s public information officer, pointed out in the news release. Anyone with information on the cases is asked to call the Sarasota Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at 941-263-6070, leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling 941-366-TIPS, or go online at www.sarasotacrimestoppers.com, she wrote.

Prior cases involving Grimsley

When the News Leader checked the records of the Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court, it found two other cases involving Grimsley.

In the first one, dating to November 2017, he was charged with resisting an officer without violence. In the second, which occurred in June 2020, he was charged with sending a written threat to kill someone.

That first incident was reported in the city of Sarasota, the Probable Cause Affidavit said. A deputy who was “on routine patrol in the area of Leonard Reid [Avenue] and 32nd [Street] had just received a “Be on the Lookout,” or BOLO, alert for a white Jeep Cherokee in regard to its alleged involvement in a shooting that the Sarasota Police Department was investigating, the affidavit continued.

The Sarasota County deputy spotted the vehicle, which then tried to elude him, he noted in the affidavit’s narrative. The vehicle, which “had extremely dark tint on the windows,” failed to stop for the stop sign at the intersection of 19th Street and Chester Avenue, the affidavit continued.

This map shows the location of the intersection of 19th Street and Chester Avenue in Sarasota. Image from Google Maps

After the deputy activated his emergency lights, the affidavit noted, the “vehicle “immediately accelerated and it was obvious he was attempting to flee as it continued north through [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way],” the affidavit said.

The deputy already had issued a call for backup units, the affidavit pointed out.

The Jeep Cherokee continued heading north, “still showing no sign of yielding,” the affidavit added. Then, after it turned west on 26th Avenue W., the affidavit said, the deputy saw the driver’s door and the two passenger side doors open, “and then three [Black] male occupants exited the vehicle while it was still in motion” and fled south on 12th Street Court West, the affidavit continued.

Grimsley was identified as the front seat passenger after officers were able to locate the individuals, the affidavit added.

A search of the driver found “a small baggie of marijuana,” the affidavit noted. Grimsley ended up being charged with resisting an officer without violence, the affidavit said.

The arrest occurred in Bradenton, the affidavit pointed out.

That case was transferred to Manatee County in December 2017, the court records show.

A March 2018 document said that Grimsley was ordered to pay a total of $519.25 in court costs and fines.

In the other case, which was reported on June 18, 2020, the Probable Cause Affidavit explained that officers were called to the medical offices of Florida Cancer Specialists, located at 1970 Golf St. in Sarasota. An employee said that while she was at work, Grimsley arrived, “wanting to meet with her.” The employee told the deputies that she refused to talk with him, the affidavit said, so he “informed her that he was going to wait outside and damage her vehicle.”

This map shows the location of Florida Cancer Specialists in Sarasota. Image from Google Maps

The employee then told the officers that her boss called for a law enforcement response, the affidavit added.

Further, the employee explained that she recently had blocked Grimsley’s calls and that “they had been communicating via Snapchat.” That day, the employee continued, Grimsley sent her a series of messages, stating that he was going to get her fired and that he was going to keep coming to her place of work and wait until she went on break.

He also threatened to kill her, the affidavit pointed out.

“No Wea I can’t find u,” he added on Snapchat, the affidavit said. In the last part of that message, the affidavit added, he called her a profane term.

The employee told the officers that “she was in fear for her safety” after receiving those messages, so she wanted to press charges, the affidavit noted.

The type of threat Grimsley allegedly sent her was a second-degree felony, the affidavit added.

On July 10, 2020, a court document shows, the State Attorney’s Office declined to press charges against Grimsley.