Man accused of shooting acquaintance: Escambia County Sheriff’s Office

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with more information from the suspect’s family who is also the victim’s girlfriend and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. ( WKRG ) — A man was arrested after he shot and killed an acquaintance, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

41-year-old David Leallen Kueker was arrested and charged after deputies found a 44-year-old man dead from a gunshot wound Tuesday on the 1000 block of North Loop, according to ECSO officials.

The victim and Kueker felt like another person was threatening them, according to an ECSO Facebook post . The two reportedly were “standing watch from the threat” outside Kueker’s sister’s house.

Officials said Kueker got into a vehicle and fell asleep, and once he was sleeping, the victim approached the vehicle unarmed and with a walker.

“Sometime during the night, the victim gets up and realizes he hasn’t heard from his acquaintance in a while,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said. “He uses a walker to walk, so he took his walker, went over to the car, and from what we had gathered, as he got to the window of the rear seat of the car there was a single shot that was shot through the window, shooting and killing the victim.”

When Kueker woke up, he saw a person standing out the window of the car and fired a shot, which killed the victim, according to ECSO.

“I heard a gunshot and my little brother was like call 911, and I said, ‘Where’s Vincent?’ His car was parked there,” Sonya Silva, who is Kueker’s sister and the victim’s girlfriend, said. “I seen Vincent’s walker and that’s whenever he was like, ‘I shot Vincent, take care of my kids I’m going to jail, Sonya, I’m sorry.'”

Silva said Kueker and the victim were close.

“Them two were like beans and rice, you can’t separate them,” Silva said.

Kueker is now charged with manslaughter.

“He had the weapon with him,” Simmons said. “He didn’t use any kind of due care, and it was not reasonable to believe his life was in danger at that point.”

ECSO is looking into the alleged threat as well while Kueker remains in jail.

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