Who fired the gun? Manatee jury rules in fatal Palmetto video game shooting
A jury acquitted a Ruskin man in a 2019 shooting that left one person dead during a gathering at a Palmetto house, according to court records.
Benjamin Lang, 36, avoided a second-degree murder conviction after prosecutors argued he fatally shot 28-year-old Benny Williams IV four times during a meetup where people were playing video games.
Lang’s defense argued the state’s case relied on conflicting witness testimony and lacked physical evidence tying him to the shooting, according to court records. In a motion for acquittal, his attorney pointed to discrepancies in what witnesses claimed they saw and noted that investigators never recovered the gun used in the shooting.
Court records show that after a three-day trial presided over by Circuit Judge Teri Dees, jurors returned a not-guilty verdict on March 28. An attorney representing Lang did not immediately respond to the Bradenton Herald’s request for comment.
Investigators said the shooting happened on March 1, 2019, in the 1700 block of 17th Avenue Drive East in Palmetto. About seven people had gathered in the home’s front yard playing PlayStation 4 and gambling on games when they heard several loud pops that sounded like firecrackers, detectives said. When they looked over, witnesses said they saw Lang standing over Williams, who asked, “Why did you shoot me?” according to an arrest report.
Defenses argues unreliable witnesses
In the motion for acquittal, Lang’s attorney challenged those accounts, pointing out that one witness initially told detectives Lang was inside the house when the shots were fired, before later testifying that he saw Lang standing over the victim.
Another said he saw Lang with a gun after the shooting but did not see him fire it. This witness, the defense noted while raising questions about their credibility, had 16 prior felony convictions.
The defense also emphasized that law enforcement found no surveillance footage, no forensic evidence and no physical evidence inside the burned vehicle connecting Lang to the shooting.
Multiple witnesses said they were drinking at the time of the shooting, it was dark out, and they did not see who shot Williams, according to court records.
According to an arrest report, the witnesses fled the scene after the shooting. They later told deputies there had been no fighting or threats beforehand.
Deputies responded to a call that initially described the incident as a drive-by shooting. When they arrived, deputies said they found Williams lying in the front yard with four gunshot wounds. First responders performed CPR, but Williams died about an hour later at HCA Florida Blake Hospital, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
Six spent .22 caliber casings were found in the front yard near where investigators found Williams, according to an arrest report.
Detectives said they could not immediately locate Lang after the shooting. The next day, they found a 2011 Buick LaCrosse registered to his mother burning less than 10 miles from his home in Ruskin. Lang was known to drive the vehicle, according to investigators.
Lang surrendered at the Manatee County jail nearly 24 hours after the shooting, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
Previous Palmetto shooting
At the time, Lang was out on bond in a separate shooting case. In that 2018 incident, prosecutors said he followed a former friend after seeing him at a food stand in West Bradenton. The man stopped his car on 17th Street East, and Lang walked up and fired seven times into the vehicle, hitting Rasheed Dunlap in the lower back, investigators said.
Dunlap was treated for his injuries at Manatee Memorial Hospital, according to an arrest report.
Lang and Dunlap had grown up together but had fallen out years earlier, according to prosecutors. During court proceedings, Lang argued he acted in self-defense and filed a motion for immunity under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
A judge denied the motion, ruling that Lang had been carrying a concealed weapon illegally and that the victim had been shot in the back, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
A jury later convicted Lang of aggravated battery with great bodily harm with a firearm and shooting into a vehicle in the 2018 case, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
In January, Circuit Judge Matt Whyte sentenced Lang to 30 years in prison for the aggravated battery charge, including a 25-year minimum mandatory sentence. Lang also received a consecutive 15-year sentence for shooting into an occupied vehicle, according to court records.
Lang is appealing the conviction in Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal, according to court records.
Both shootings occurred about a mile apart, according to arrest reports.
