Inset: Keith Roberts Jr. (Manatee County Sheriff's Office). Background: Law enforcement responds to an office building in Bradenton, Florida, after a shooting (Bradenton Police Department).
A man in Florida is accused of going to his ex-girlfriend's office building and shooting her at "point-blank range" before aiming his sights on one of her co-workers.
Keith Roberts Jr., 29, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 29-year-old Myshaela Burnham, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
The defendant also faces a charge of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.
On Thursday at about 12:45 p.m., Burnham was working at a suite of offices on the 5200 block of 4th Avenue in Bradenton, which is located just south of Tampa.
Bradenton City Police Chief Jason Cramer explained what allegedly occurred next in comments to area NBC affiliate WFLA.
Roberts "walked in an unlocked door and went directly to the desk where the victim was … knowing that's where her desk was, and directly opened fire at point blank range," Cramer said, adding that the suspect had two guns on him during the crime, one of them being a shotgun.
The police chief said a co-worker of Burnham's who was at an adjoining desk was hit by the shotgun blast.
"That's how close it was that the blast hit her, too," the police chief continued. "And then he, in what can only be called premeditated, took out a gun and started shooting directly at her."
Multiple people called 911 and described a vehicle driving away from the scene. The Bradenton Police Department contacted other agencies in the area, such as the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, and together, they took Roberts into custody "within 25 minutes of the shooting."
Authorities have not released the name of the other victim, noting on Friday that she was hospitalized and listed as stable after undergoing surgery.
"[She] was shot multiple times, shotgun blast and handgun blast. She's lucky to be alive, [she] really is, and we're all praying for her safe recovery," he added.
Photos taken by law enforcement at the scene show the adjoining office to where the victims worked is a dental office. While Bradenton police spokesperson Meredith Censullo noted to local Fox affiliate WTVT that the office where the crime occurred had no patients, she said "a lot of people" heard the shooting.
"This man is a terrorist," Cramer said. "He terrorized those people's lives. He's changed the lives of four people or two victims, the children of a victim, the man himself. Their lives are either over or changed forever."
"The cruelty and the evil that Keith Roberts portrayed yesterday can never be forgiven," he added.
Court records show Roberts made his first appearance in court on Friday.
The defendant is scheduled to return a week from that date and then be arraigned on Feb. 13.
Comments