Reward increases for Longboat Key murder suspects

Six men died in a rash of local homicides that ended the first week of August.

Melquisedec “Tito” Bentancourt. Kevin Carter. Timothy Hurley. Rodney Williams. Keith Lamar Jones. Andre Bryant.

An arrest has been made in the death of the 32-year-old Bentancourt. A hefty reward is being offered for information about who killed Carter and Hurley. And law enforcement are still trying to see if there are any ties between Williams’ and Jones’ deaths and Bryant’s body found nine miles away.

No major updates were released Monday by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, Longboat Key Police or the Sarasota Police Department.

On Thursday afternoon, after receiving a call of shots fired in the 7100 block of North Tamiami Trail, law enforcement tracked down 36-year-old Karrie Lee Sanderson III, said to be an acquaintance of Bentancourt, who had been found shot to death in a car parked behind a business.

Twelve hours later, Longboat Key police said Zota Beach Resort’s security guard Carter, 51, and night front desk manager Hurley, 59, were shot and killed during an attempted robbery. In surveillance video released by police, at least one suspect is seen carrying out cash drawers. There was about $600 in them.

Donations have flowed in to a reward fund for the arrest or arrests of Carter’s and Hurley’s killer. Since Saturday, the reward has increased to $50,000 and is being managed by Crime Stoppers, according to Chief Pete Cumming.

On Saturday, another early-morning shooting was underway. A 911 call came in at 3:51 a.m. to report shots fired in the 1100 block of Harvard Avenue in Bayshore Gardens. A neighbor said she heard “machinery, clicking outside, like a loud, loud, loud machinery,” according to the call. She then realized it was gunfire, recalling five or six shots.

A 25-year-old woman had been confronted by three or four people as she arrived home on Harvard Avenue. The suspects forced her into a bedroom, and detectives say the woman’s boyfriend, 23-year-old Williams, and possibly another man was with him. After the woman escaped the bedroom and called law enforcement, Williams and 28-year-old Jones were found dead.

Nine miles south of the Bayshore Gardens crime scene, near Bahia Vista Street and Yale Avenue, a passerby found the body of 31-year-old Bryant, a man who in 2015 had his conviction set aside regarding a 2006 armed robbery of a sheriff’s deputy’s wife. The Sarasota Police Department and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office are working together to figure out if Bryant was at the house on Harvard Avenue.

Anyone with information on Bryant’s death can call Sarasota Police Detective Maria Llovio at 941-364-7336. The Longboat Key Police Department can be contacted at 941-316-1977 and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office can be reached at 941-747-3011.

To give tips anonymously about area crimes, contact Manatee County Crime Stoppers at 866-634-8477.

This story was originally published August 7, 2017 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Reward increases for Longboat Key murder suspects."