MARION COUNTY, Fla. — A 12-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy are facing first-degree murder charges and another teenager is at large after deputies say they killed three teenagers in Marion County, our sister station WFTV in Orlando reports.
Sheriff Billy Woods said his department worked along with various other law enforcement agencies to link the three suspects to the deaths of three teenagers found dead in the Ocklawaha area last week.
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The teenagers — a boy and two girls — were found with gunshot wounds days apart in rural Marion County. The third teenager’s body was found Saturday inside a vehicle that had been partially submerged in a body of water, Woods said.
Woods said the suspects left the scene after the killings.
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“They fled but left a lot of evidence in their wake,” Woods said.
Woods said the teens were arrested Thursday night and charged with first-degree murder. He said the third suspect, a 16-year-old boy, remains at large. (Action News Jax is not naming the teens at this time.)
“Some of you know him, know where he is and you need to turn him in,” Woods said. “I will get him, I will find him and justice will be complete.”
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Woods said the shootings don’t appear to be related to any sort of gang rivalry, but that the teens were all associated with gangs.
“Each and every one of them was in some shape or form was associated with a gang,” Woods said Friday.
Woods said the suspects were known to commit burglaries and robberies in the area, and that that’s how they got their hands on the gun used in the killings.
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