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5th Polk Teen Arrested In Shooting Of 12-Year-Old

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TBO Staff

Published: January 4, 2009

James Derek Crowder

Polk County deputies arrested a fifth person Saturday in connection with a shooting that left a 12-year-old bystander wounded in the leg.

Deputies received a tip that James Derek Crowder, 18, was in a room at the Super Inn Motel in Winter Haven and arrested him Saturday without incident.

Crowder, 1233 N. Lake Otis Drive, Winter Haven, was arrested on a warrant charging him with attempted murder, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

Four others are in custody for the Dec. 29 shooting on Carefree Cove Drive.

Caleb Brown was shot in the leg at about 5 p.m. when he and a friend, Richard Goodwin, 15, accidently walked near two groups who were arguing, the sheriff's office said.

The two boys approached a group of teenagers in a Jeep when several people came out of a wooded area, shouting at the occupants of the Jeep to leave.

The people coming from the woods then fired several shots at the Jeep and Brown was hit in the leg though he was not the intended victim, the sheriff's office said.

The sheriff's office said two of those already arrested were charged with attempted murder: Antonio Calloway, 15, Kerwin Farmer, 16, both from Winter Haven.

Detectives arrested Ethan Lucas, 16, of Winter Haven, on charges of discharging a firearm in public, carrying a concealed firearm and violating probation.

Also arrested was Rakeem Rivers, 17, of Winter Haven, on a charge of tampering with evidence.
Two days after the shooting, the sheriff's office said the victim was recuperating at home.

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