A 16-year-old felon was recently apprehended for attempted murder in Central Florida.
Detectives from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office apprehended and charged a 16-year-old convicted offender with multiple new felonies, including attempted first-degree murder. The suspect, Jonathan Granados of Lakeland, plotted a fight with another teen via social media messages before showing up with a gun and opening fire. Nobody was wounded.
The inquiry began when True Roofers, a firm on North Frontage Road, called to report that employees had arrived at work and discovered spent shot casings on the ground. An examination of the CCTV tape revealed a silver Chevrolet Malibu coming and parking. An unnamed individual approached the automobile on foot and shot it several times before it left. The suspect then ran away.
Detectives identified the Malibu’s driver as a 19-year-old from Lakeland.
Deputies stopped the Malibu, and investigators arrived to question the 19-year-old, who claimed his car was fired while he was sleeping at home. He gave various contradictory statements about why his car had so many gunshots. After being shown the CCTV footage, he confirmed being at True Roofers when the incident occurred. He informed officers that he came to the area to fight someone with whom he had been messaging back and forth. He refused to tell detectives who the shooter was.
Detectives continued their investigation, obtaining search warrants for both the Malibu and the 19-year-old’s cell phone and social media accounts. They found that on the day of the shooting, the victim was en route to Granados’ house but was diverted owing to the presence of law enforcement. He proceeded to True Roofers and requested a meeting with Granados there.
In the victim’s phone, detectives discovered an Instagram group messaging thread. During the conversation, the victim informed the others, including Granados, that he had witnessed law enforcement conducting a traffic check near Granados’ home, which is located close to True Roofers. He shared a photo of the fence around the rear of the building and stated that he would “jump it.” He was also caught on the business’s CCTV camera staring over the fence.
Other images and recordings from these chats showed Granados’ house as well as a discussion about how law enforcement would be involved later. At one point, someone says, “shoot the crib,” alluding to Granados’ home. The victim stated that he wasn’t armed.
Granados was positively identified as one of the Instagram users in the group chat and by witnesses who saw the video security footage of the incident.
Detectives came to Granados’ home to arrest him on his warrant. During the search, officers discovered a loaded Glock model 19 9mm handgun with an extended magazine carrying 28 bullets, which had been illegally modified with a “switch” that allowed it to fire fully automatic. Granados admitted to possessing the gun, obtaining the switch online, and installing it himself, telling officers that shooting it “felt like Superman.”
“I am so proud of my detectives, who left no stone unturned until this case was solved and the suspect was appropriately charged,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “This violent teenaged suspect, who has already been convicted of a felony, played a very dangerous game so he could ‘feel like Superman.’ If he’s Superman, then my detectives are his Kryptonite.”
Granados was charged with attempted first-degree murder, shooting into an inhabited vehicle, shooting into a building, possession of a machine gun, and possession of a firearm/ammunition by an adjudicated juvenile. Granados was accused of providing false information to law enforcement, firing a firearm in public, and breaking probation.
