On March 12 , 2009 –
The shooting took place Sunday about 11:45 p.m. at Holiday Inn Kissimmee, 2009 W. U.S. Highway 192, where 80 of the players are staying during spring training. The only player injured was bitten by the suspect during their struggle.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was in critical condition with several gunshot wounds, including a bullet that passed through his cheek, police said. An accomplice who leaped from a second-floor landing escaped as officers arrived about 11 p.m.
“This could easily have gone the other way and our officers could have been shot,” Cmdr. Fran Iwanski said. “It was a split-second decision.”
Before the shooting, investigators said the men committed two robberies in adjoining rooms on the hotel’s second floor. The gunmen burst through the open door of Room 254 about 10:30 after five of the players and a friend had finished watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
Armed with semiautomatic pistols and wearing black masks, the suspects demanded cash. Before leaving, they tied up their victims with plastic ties, investigators said.
The door to Room 252 was open when the suspects committed their second robbery.
“Based on what we’ve learned so far, this looks like a crime of opportunity,” Iwanski said. “We don’t think the suspects knew the victims were ballplayers or that the team was staying at the hotel.”
Room robberies in hotels along U.S. Highway 192 along the tourist corridor leading to Walt Disney World are not uncommon. Team officials said players from their minor-league camp at Osceola County Stadium have been staying at the hotel during spring training since 1994. Players at the team’s major-league camp typically stay in condominiums and private homes.
“Everybody felt very comfortable being there,” said Timothy Purpura, the team’s assistant manager. “I liken it to a dormitory situation, where guys come and go, watch TV or play Nintendo in this room or that. They feel comfortable coming and going, and that comfort really opened them up to this situation.”
According to police reports, players Morgan Ensberg, 24, Derek Nicholson, 23, Keith Ginter, 23, Michael Rose, 23, and Eric Cole, 24, all from the West Coast, were in Room 254 during the first robbery. Also present was Alicia Szczerba, 23, a friend.
The sixth player who was robbed, Aaron Miles, 23, was alone in Room 252 when the two gunmen entered through the open door.
They demanded money. Miles complied. The phone rang. One of the gunmen answered. It was one of the players from Room 254, who managed to untie himself on the line. When the player realized he was speaking to one of the robbers, he hung up and called 911, investigators said.
Unable to get through, the player alerted the hotel’s front desk who called 911 at 11:04 p.m. Minutes later, Officer Jeff Bogen saw one of the suspects walking out of the room. He ordered the suspect to halt and show his hands, investigators said. The suspect put his hands on the railing and leaped down to the first floor.
“When he jumped,” Bogen said, “I saw a black handgun fall out of his waist or jacket. It landed on the ground.”
The suspect ran through the pool area. Two pistols and a black bag containing the cash were later recovered.
Bogen didn’t realize the second suspect was still inside Room 252 with Miles until victims of the first robbery screamed a warming. By that time, the department SWAT team and a K-9 were also called out.
Two officers outside Room 252 saw the suspect through a window pacing inside near the door. Miles, a second baseman for the club’s Michigan Battle Cats minor league team last year, lunged and grabbed the suspect’s gun. While they wrestled on the floor for control of the semiautomatic, officers heard the commotion and used the butt of a shotgun to break a window and enter the room, investigators said.
Miles and the suspect were struggling on the floor when Officer Pete Szlezak fired five or six shots from his 9mm at the suspect. Miles was bitten on the neck by the suspect, who detectives are hoping to identify through fingerprints. The gunman was rushed to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was admitted at 12:59 a.m. Monday.
Doctors said he suffered gunshot wounds to his face, both shoulders, and stomach. After surviving a four-hour surgery, he was listed in critical but stable condition Monday night.
Iwanski said the shooting appears to be well within parameters for the use of deadly force but that as a matter of procedure it will be investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Szlezak is a 10-year veteran of the force with no prior shootings and an excellent service record, Iwanski said.
A police dog lost a track of the suspect at The Sports Authority parking lot just west of the hotel. Iwanski said there may be a third suspect who could have been waiting in a getaway car.
Szczerba’s family said they were grateful their daughter was not injured.
“She went over to see her friend who is a wife of one of the players,” said Susan Szczerba, Alicia’s mother. “They were college roommates and they went out to dinner together. Alicia said she went back to get something from the room and when she turned around to leave, that’s when they [the suspects) came in.”
Team officials said this is the first incident at the hotel, but players have to be wary on the road.
“I knew another guy who had the same thing happen to him, in another city,” said Aaron McNeal, a 20-year-old Astros player and close friend of Miles.
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