Man shot at Lakeland detectives, ‘clearly attempting to kill’ them: LPD

LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — A man accused of “clearly attempting to kill” two Lakeland police detectives was arrested Wednesday.

Arthur Jared Williams, 18, approached two detectives in a parked vehicle around 5 p.m., while they were conducting surveillance in the 1800 block of Plateau Village Drive in Lakeland.

“Williams walked up to the vehicle, looked inside, and asked the detectives if they had some gas, which is a common street slang for marijuana,” Lakeland Chief of Police Sam Taylor said in a press conference Wednesday.

The detectives were later patrolling the 1100 block of Atlantic Avenue, just north of their original surveillance location around 5:45 p.m. As the detectives drove past Williams and 22-year-old Abdul Littles, who were standing near their red Nissan, Williams simulated the firing of a gun with his fingers.

Williams then pulled out a handgun and fired into the detective’s vehicle, striking the car at least five times into their vehicle, according to Lakeland police.

“After passing them, one of the detectives looked in the rearview mirror to see Williams holding a handgun. Williams then started shooting directly into the detective’s vehicle,” said Taylor.

A ring doorbell camera captured the moment Williams pointed a gun — firing at least 15 shots at the detectives as a little girl stood on the front porch, with five of the rounds hitting the detective’s vehicle.

The chief said the detectives were just doing their jobs.

“These detectives were out there, doing what we pay them to do,” Taylor said. “They were out there standing in the gap between good and evil, as you have heard me say before. They were doing nothing other than their jobs.”

The vehicle was hit several times, but the detectives were not hurt. The two suspects fled in the Nissan.

Taylor said the pair attempted to call an Uber back to Plateau Avenue to distance themselves from the red Nissan. Officials pulled the Uber over and arrested the suspects around 1:25 a.m. near a Tampa home on Wednesday morning. The Uber driver was “extremely cooperative.”

“He knew they were law enforcement,” Chief Taylor added. “There is no doubt in my mind.”

“That is evil. No regard for life, none,” Mark Glass, the commissioner for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.

Williams was arrested on charges of two counts of attempted murder and two counts of firing into an occupied vehicle. Littles was arrested on unrelated charges but remains a suspect in this case. They were both taken to the Hillsborough County Jail.

The police chief said Williams has a history in the criminal system, having juvenile felony arrests for robbery.

This remains an ongoing investigation.

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