Handguns add to Sunday violence in Palm Coast

Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies were busy yesterday, according to word received by Historic City News this morning from spokesperson Debra Johnson reporting gunfire at a Palm Coast home, and, in a separate incident, the armed robbery of a local liquor store.

Around 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, deputies responded to 14B Buttowood Lane in Palm Coast after receiving reports of shots being fired into the home.

The occupants told deputies that two black men came to the house around 10:00 p.m. Saturday night claiming to be owed money and looking for another man who they believed to be in the residence.

After being told that the person was not there, the men left but reportedly returned around 2:00 a.m. The residents said they saw them walking up the drive; one of the men was armed with a gun.

A woman who lives in the home was outside. Deputies said she was grabbed by her hair and ordered to open the door to the residence. She complied and her attacker fired several shots into the air. He released her, went to the front window, and then fired several rounds into the residence.

Deputies recovered seven shell casings from the driveway, front yard and porch area and reported that it appeared another five to seven rounds were fired into the residence.

The assailants left in a newer model pickup truck.

In a separate incident Sunday morning, deputies were dispatched to Sharps Liquor Store in Flagler Regional Plaza on SR-100 around 10:36 a.m. after a customer called to report that he found the door to the business locked and heard the cashier inside screaming for help.

The clerk told deputies that a black man wearing a helmet, riding jacket and gloves, entered the store and asked for help finding an item. She approached him to assist, but he grabbed her; then ordered her, at gunpoint, to open the register and safe.

The robber took the cash and made the clerk lock the front door. He ordered her into the stock room, where he bound her legs and hands. The robber escaped through the store’s back door.

Anyone with information on either of these incidents is asked to contact the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office at (386) 313-4911 or Crimestoppers at 1-888-277-TIPS (8477).