PALM BAY, Fla. – A 17-year-old boy is among two people arrested in Palm Bay to face attempted murder charges in their alleged role in a drive-by shooting that left a juvenile blinded by glass fragments, according to police.
Matthew Borde was arrested March 12 in connection to the Feb. 28 incident, which occurred near the Bayside Lakes Clubhouse along Bramblewood Circle, a probable cause affidavit states. News 6 is naming Borde due to the circumstances of the case.
A sedan carrying two juveniles had pulled into the parking lot — where a large group was gathered next to the car — while Borde and 19-year-old Tai’shan Capell rode as a passengers in an SUV that continued to travel south past the lot’s entrance along Bramblewood Circle, according to the affidavit. The SUV then turned around and was seen slowly rolling past the parking lot as two gunshots were heard, the affidavit states. A projectile struck the front driver-side window of the first car, and the SUV sped away, police said.
The juvenile behind the wheel of the first car was left “bleeding and completely blind” after glass from the broken window became embedded in his face and eyes, police said. After being treated at a hospital, he was taken as a trauma alert to Miami for immediate surgery, according to the affidavit.
The SUV’s license plate was caught on surveillance video and police soon made contact with its driver, another juvenile, who reportedly told them that he had been involved in several fights with the victim leading up to the shooting, officials said. The victim and his friends had allegedly jumped the SUV’s driver two days prior, after which they all “mutually agreed to meet at the Bayside Clubhouse to fight once again,” the affidavit states.
The day of the shooting, the SUV’s driver picked up two people, the second of whom was Borde, according to authorities.
While picking up Capell, the first person, the driver told police that he noticed him running inside his residence to grab something unknown. While picking up Borde, the driver said that his two passengers then went inside the 17-year-old’s residence and returned to the SUV “holding nothing in their hands.”
Now approaching the entrance to the parking lot, the driver told police that his passengers instructed him to continue driving past the entrance and to turn around, with Borde at one point saying, “There he is.” As the driver complied, the passengers pulled out concealed firearms and began to shoot toward the crowd of people in the parking lot, according to the affidavit. The driver said both of the alleged shooters were using revolver-style handguns, the affidavit states.
The person whom Borde allegedly identified before the shooting was not the victim who was hospitalized, according to the affidavit. Instead, the SUV driver told police that Borde and Capell had it out for two other people in the parking lot, one of whom was seen walking around, the affidavit states.
About 20 juveniles were in the parking lot at the time of the shooting, with later statements attesting “a 7-year-old and a 13-year-old” were there as well, sitting in the back seat of a vehicle parked one spot over from the one which was struck, police said.
Borde faces charges of discharging a firearm from a vehicle, possession of weapon and/or ammunition by a delinquent and two counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, records show.
Capell faces charges of aggravated child abuse, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm in public or on residential property, use or display of a firearm in commission of a felony, shooting into a vehicle and three counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.
