A 16-year-old felon was recently arrested for attempted murder in Central Florida.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested and charged the 16-year-old convicted felon with several new felonies, including attempted first degree murder. The suspect, Jonathan Granados, of Lakeland, planned a fight with another teen via social media messages, then showed up to the fight with a gun and opened fire. Nobody was injured.
The investigation began when PCSO received a call from True Roofers, a company on North Frontage Road, after employees arrived at work and found spent shell casings on the ground. A review of their security footage showed a silver Chevrolet Malibu arriving and parking. An unidentified man approached the car on foot and shot at it multiple times until the car fled. The suspect then ran away.
Detectives were able to identify the driver of the Malibu as a 19-year-old from Lakeland.
Deputies stopped the Malibu and detectives responded to the traffic stop to interview the 19-year-old, who lied and said his car was shot when it was parked at his home while he was sleeping. He made several inconsistent statements regarding why his car had so many gunshots. Eventually, after being told about the video footage, he admitted to being at True Roofers when the shooting occurred. He told detectives that he arrived in the area to fight with someone with whom he had been texting back and forth. He would not tell detectives who the shooter was.
Detectives continued their investigation, including obtaining search warrants for the Malibu and the 19-year-old’s cell phone and social media accounts. They determined that on the date of the shooting, the victim was en route to Granados’ house, but diverted due to the presence of law enforcement. He went to True Roofers and told Granados to meet him there.
In the victim’s phone detectives found an Instagram group message thread. The conversation included the victim telling the others (including Granados) about seeing law enforcement on a traffic stop in the area of Granados’ home, which is near True Roofers. He sent a photo of the fence around the back of the business and told the others he would “jump it.” He was also seen on the business’ video surveillance peering over the fence.
Other photos and videos within these conversations showed Granados’ house and a conversation about how law enforcement was further down the road. At one point someone says “shoot the crib,” referring to Granados’ house. The victim commented that he was not armed.
Granados was positively identified as one of the Instagram users within the group chat, and by witnesses who were shown the video surveillance of the shooting.
Detectives responded to Granados’ home to take him into custody on his warrant. During a search of the residence, detectives found a loaded Glock model 19 9mm handgun with an extended magazine containing 28 rounds, modified with a “switch” which illegally alters it to be fired in a fully automatic fashion. Granados admitted to owning the gun, ordering the switch online, and installing it himself, telling detectives that when shooting it he “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 occupied vehicle, Shooting into a building, Possession of a machine gun, Possession of a firearm/ammo by an adjudicated juvenile, Giving false info to law enforcement, Discharging a firearm in public, and Violation of probation.
