Almost 30 years ago, I lived and worked in Poinciana. At the time, I was a part time firefighter and full time industrial robotics technician. Poinciana was a community of mostly blue collar workers. I coached the local little league football team that my son played in, and my daughter was a cheerleader. It was the kind of area where people raised kids. I left there when my first wife and I were divorced in 1997. It has since become the center for much gang activity. Parts of it are controlled by the Latin Kings, the Crips, and several other gangs. It is now a high crime area.

Poinciana is divided down the middle by the Osceola and Polk County line. Police in the Polk county side arrived to a reported shooting to find one dead gunshot victim, two wounded victims, two unharmed victims, three children who were unharmed, and a car that had hit a house. It was complicated, but Sheriff Grady Judd lays it all out.

All of the people involved are in a street gang. The same gang, the Crips. The guy who was killed is the aggressor and is a felon with multiple convictions. He arrived and began demanding to speak with victim 3. When victim 3 approaches him, he punched him in the face and pulled a gun. Victims 4 and 5 ran to get guns. Victim 5 fired the first shot, and a gunfight ensued. Victims 1 and 2 were in a car at the scene and were not involved in the incident. Victim 1 was shot in the head, and Victim 2 (a woman) was shot in the jaw. At the end, the aggressor died.

No one really wants to talk, mostly because they are all criminals. Guess the race of all involved.

Poinciana is in the 16th percentile for safety. The rate of all crime in Poinciana is 50.27 per 1,000 residents. The US average is 22.7, making Poinciana’s crime rate double the national average. Your chance of being a victim of crime there may be as high as 1 in 13. Diversity is strength!

Categories: Crime

1 Comment

Jester · March 3, 2023 at 8:32 pm

I mean I guess even inside a gang there’s fights. Good news is the gang is offing it’s own members? Fortunately no children or bystanders got shot in this situation which, so frequently seems to be what happens.

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