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Florida librarian fatally stabbed opening library for book sale

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A librarian was fatally stabbed Sunday morning while opening the library for a weekend book sale.

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Leroy Hommerding, the director of the Fort Myers Beach Public Library, was stabbed by Adam M. Soules around 9 a.m., the Fort Myers News-Press reported.

"It's devastating," Sallie Seabury, president of the Fort Myers Beach Public Library board, told the News-Press. "We were having a book sale, and he went to open the doors."

Seabury told the News-Press that Hommerding, 69, was a staunch advocate and was instrumental in getting the library built.

Soules left the scene, but witnesses followed him and deputies soon arrived to take him into custody, the News-Press reported.

Soules, 36, was arrested and charged with second-degree homicide.

“This outrageous act will not go unpunished,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said as a sign behind him for the book sale flapped in the wind.

Sheriff Carmine Marceno addresses the media in regard to a Sunday homicide that occurred on Estero Boulevard in Fort Myers Beach.

Posted by Lee County Sheriff's Office on Sunday, January 20, 2019