Gunman sentenced after shooting at downtown Bradenton bar, prosecutors say
A judge sentenced a Bradenton man to nearly two decades in prison Wednesday for shooting two people at a downtown Bradenton bar last summer.
Derrell Scott, 54, received a 17-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to two counts of attempted second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to court records. Manatee County Circuit Judge Teri K. Dees handed down the sentence, which also includes 10 years of probation.
An attorney representing Scott did not immediately respond to the Bradenton Herald’s request for comment.
The charges stem from a July shooting at the Loaded Barrel Tavern, 450 12th St. W., the Bradenton Herald previously reported. Officers responded shortly after midnight to reports of gunfire and found a woman with a gunshot wound to her leg, police said. Investigators said a man who had been shot in the torso had already been taken to a local hospital when they arrived.
Witnesses told police that Scott had been involved in an argument with the male victim inside the bar, according to the report. He left the tavern and returned minutes later with a firearm, then opened fire, police said. Investigators said the woman was a bystander who was hit by the gunfire.
Both victims were hospitalized and recovering from their injuries in the days after the shooting, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
Witnesses told police that Scott fled the scene with another man after the shooting, and investigators said surveillance footage showed him throwing a gun in a trash can and driving away in a maroon SUV. Based on the footage and witness descriptions, police said detectives identified Scott as the suspect.
Detectives said Scott opened fire intentionally and showed little concern for the safety of other people in the bar, according to the arrest report. During an investigation, police recovered several spent shell casings and a bullet lodged in the baseboard of the bar, according to an arrest report.
A SWAT team arrested Scott later that month in Osceola County, according to the Bradenton Police Department.
At the time of his arrest, Scott was also charged with aggravated battery and use of a firearm by a convicted felon, police said. Prosecutors later amended those charges, court records show, upgrading the aggravated battery counts to attempted second-degree murder with a firearm and reducing the firearm possession charge to a second-degree felony.
On the same day he was sentenced in the shooting case, Scott also pleaded no contest in a separate felony case to failing to report his residence as required under Florida’s sexual offender registration law. Dees sentenced him to five years in prison, to be served concurrently with his 17-year term, according to court records.
According to police, Scott had been a registered sexual offender in Philadelphia, where he was also convicted of robbery in 1993, before relocating to Bradenton.
