DELAND — Police have arrested a 19-year-old after the latest in a spate of shootings involving teenage victims.
The shooting at 6:11 p.m. Sunday night at 509 West Hubbard Ave. that left 14-year-old Jayden Thompson with a gunshot wound is the third in the neighborhood in two weeks.
When police arrived at the scene they found the wounded boy inside the house, police said. Dispatchers said the boy was shot in the chest.
Thompson was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, said DeLand police Sgt. Chris Estes.
The suspected, Victor Franklin Jr., was in custody Sunday night and police released his name Monday morning. Dispatchers said that the suspect was turned in to police by his mother.
Franklin is charged with aggravated battery and was being held Monday at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $20,000 bail.
The shooting is the second to occur on Hubbard Avenue and the third in the neighborhood in two weeks.
On May 9, in a home invasion, Michael Dixon, 22, was shot and killed at 612 Ambrose Street.
Investigators said Dixon's mother reported that at 4:52 a.m. she heard someone kicking in her door and when she opened her bedroom door, she saw a masked armed man walking in the hallway, according to a call she made to 9-1-1.
The woman escaped through her bedroom window and heard at least three shots and her son screaming, she told dispatchers.
Police found Dixon lying face down and rushed him to Florida Hospital DeLand. Dixon was transferred to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach where he died of his gunshot wounds.
And on May 6, officers responded near the corner of South Stone Street and West Hubbard Avenue after 9 p.m. where they found 18-year-old Delvaughn Robinson with a gunshot wound to one of his legs, police said.
Witnesses told police Robinson was walking with friends when gunshots were fired from an unknown direction and he was hit in the leg.
The days-apart shootings prompted community leaders to gather at a prayer vigil organized by the DeLand Clergy Coalition on Thursday at Mt. Calvary Free Will Baptist Church in DeLand.
Religious leaders called on community residents to help police fight the violence. They said residents need to give police information they may have on the crimes.
There has been too much violence and murder and the best way to reduce it in West Volusia is by helping police and not following any street code, according to several DeLand-area religious leaders, who along with DeLand Police Chief Jason Umberger, spoke to about 100 or so people who packed the church.
Estes said Sunday that the investigation into the latest shooting is ongoing. He said although no arrests have been made in the May 6 and May 9 shootings, investigators continue to work the cases.
Anyone with information about the shootings is asked to contact the DeLand Police Department at 386-626-7400 or submit an anonymous tip at delandpd.com.