Police need help identifying person of interest, vehicle in Saturday’s shooting

Police have released images of an SUV and a man who is a person of interest in connection to a shooting that left two Bradenton men wounded Saturday afternoon.

At about 3:50 p.m. Saturday, police officers were called to a report of a vehicle crash in the 3200 block of State Road 64, near the Carlton Arms apartment complex, according to a news release issued Monday. But when officers arrived, they realized that the vehicle had crashed because the driver and passenger were suffering from gunshot wounds.

The two Bradenton men, ages 22 and 24, were taken to Blake Medical Center, where they underwent surgery police said. As of Monday afternoon, both victims were recovering at Blake. The 24-year-old victim was listed in stable condition, while the 22-year-old victim was listed in critical but stable condition.

On Tuesday, police released images from surveillance video that show a possible vehicle and person of interest in the shooting. The images show a Nissan Xterra, possibly dark green in color, and unknown man.

Police would not disclose where the surveillance video was obtained from, citing it was part of their investigation.

The investigation initially had the assistance of the multi-agency Manatee Homicide Investigative Unit on Saturday because it was thought the shooting may be related to the fatal shooting of a man in Bradenton discovered dead about an hour later.

Just after 5 p.m. Saturday, sheriff’s office deputies responded to a report of a possible shooting at at the Gates of Bradenton apartment complex, located at 4515 26th St. W., Bradenton, and found Jody Pierce, 41, dead inside an apartment. His death has been ruled a homicide and the cause of death was a fatal gunshot wound, according to preliminary autopsy results.

Detectives have since determined that the fatal shooting that killed Pierce was not connected to the previous shooting.

Anyone with any information about the case is asked to call Detective Michael Page at 941-932-9314. Tips can also be submitted anonymously to crimetips@cityofbradenton.com or by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-866-634-8477 (TIPS) or online at manateecrimestoppers.com.

This story was originally published January 8, 2018 at 2:43 PM with the headline "Police need help identifying person of interest, vehicle in Saturday’s shooting."