News

Actions

Government buildings riddled with bullets in Martin County

Posted at 12:13 AM, Jan 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-24 12:32:17-05

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. -- The Martin County Sheriff's Office is investigating multiple incidents of shots being fired at government buildings in the county.

The Martin County Courthouse, Martin County Supervisor of Elections and Veterans Services building were riddled with bullets, according to Martin County Sheriff William Snyder.

The incidents happened in a span of two weeks, the most recent at the Supervisor of Elections Office sometime over the weekend.

On Tuesday morning, the sheriff said there now could be eight different cases.

Detectives are checking surveillance videos to see if a suspect can be identified.

"It's clear from the video that it happened real fast. Someone pulled up, stopped long enough to fire a couple rounds," Snyder said.

"It's a little bit unnerving," said Anita Cocoves, Health and Human Services Manager. She works out of the Veterans Services building.

A bullet hole was patched up Monday on the building.

She's grateful no one was working when the building was targeted.

"That particular office, the way it's set up, the individual in that office has their back to that window. So, it's not something that they would have seen coming."

Snyder says some people at the Supervisor of Elections building had to be turned away as crews evaluated damage.

"It's concerning, of course, whenever you have a situation like that, because my building, the supervisor of elections office, is fronted with all glass windows," said Vicki Davis, Supervisor of Elections.

Snyder says his investigators hope to make an arrest and determine the motive.

"In this particular case, why would somebody specifically target government buildings, and one of those, the Supervisor of Elections, unless perhaps they were mad at the government and taking some kind of action on their own," Snyder said.

Martin County taxpayers will be paying about $5,000 in repairs to three of the government buildings.

Snyder says if someone is arrested, they will be facing felony charges for the amount of damage caused, and disrupting government services.