The Associated Press
PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL - A Wisconsin man, his body covered with gang-related tattoos, was arrested Monday and charged with the Easter Sunday shooting death of a police officer in this resort city, authorities said.
Sgt. Kevin Kight, 34, was shot twice shortly before 10:30 p.m. during a traffic stop along a busy street lined with beachfront hotels and condominiums crowded with spring break visitors, said Deputy Police Chief David Humphreys. He died on the way to a hospital.
Investigators were interviewing several witnesses and two young men who had been with the suspect, Robert J. Bailey, 22, of Milwaukee, before the shooting.
Humphreys was unsure why Bailey was in the Florida Panhandle but said he has a criminal record and apparently is not a college student.
“He’s a gangbanger,” Humphreys said. “It’s written all over him, literally.”
Kight stopped Bailey’s car and checked his driver’s license at an intersection near the Holiday Inn Sunspree, which is popular among spring break visitors. The officer discovered the license was invalid but when he attempted to make an arrest Bailey pulled out a handgun and shot him, Humphreys said.
A man had left Bailey’s car before the shooting began. Police found him and an associate early Monday at a motel several miles west of the shooting scene, Humphreys said.
A Bay County sheriff’s deputy then spotted Bailey on foot near that motel and arrested him.
Kight was married and the father of a 4-year-old son. He had worked for the Panama City Beach Police Department for six years and had prior law enforcement experience in Ohio, Humphreys said.
At a hearing Monday afternoon, Circuit Judge Dedee Costello ordered Bailey held without bond.
Bailey, shirtless and unshaven, wearing shorts and shackles, was demure during the hearing and spoke briefly with Assistant Public Defender Walter Smith.
Smith explained to Bailey that the bond hearing was a Florida formality and, in a whisper, told Smith that he should not speak with anyone before the trial, reported The News Herald, of Panama City.
“Don’t talk to the media, don’t talk to the newspaper,” Smith told Bailey. “Don’t talk to anybody in general.”