MINUTES AGO: 3 teens arrested after deadly shooting in Panama City Beach.
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) – The Panama City Beach Police Department has arrested three teenagers in connection with a fatal shooting that occurred Tuesday night.
According to a news release, authorities working in the area of the Waffle House located at 10327 Front Beach Road, heard gunfire coming from the parking lot shortly after 10 p.m.
Authorities responded quickly and found 19-year-old Ja’Dion Love Hughes suffering from a gunshot wound. Hughes was taken to Ascension Sacred Heart, where he later died from the injuries.
“It was determined that shortly before the gunshots were fired, well let me specify, the gunshot. One single shot. There was a physical and verbal altercation in the parking lot involving four individuals, one of them being the deceased. The argument escalated into a physical confrontation. The physical confrontation then escalated into that one gunshot being fired by Mr. Ja’Zai Mitchell. The shots struck [Hughes]. He had run away from the scene and shortly fell not too far from where he was shot,” Panama City Beach Police Chief J.R. Talamantez said.
The course of the investigation revealed that a physical altercation happened in the Waffle House parking lot over the purchase of an illegal firearm.
After the shooting, 18-year-old Kiydre McCullough attempted to dispose of the weapon by hiding it in bushes nearby before he fled the scene with Mitchell in a red Chevrolet Camaro.
The authorities said that as the suspects were fleeing, Mitchell disposed of another firearm by throwing it from the vehicle into the shoulder of the road.
Soon after, authorities located and stopped the vehicle, taking Mitchell and McCullough into custody.
