U.S. Army veteran killed after sounding his horn following a near-collision at a gas station: Police

A 27-year-old man has been taken into custody by Florida police on suspicion of killing a US Army veteran following a fight at a gas station last year.

Gregory C. Reed, 60, died in Ocoee, an Orlando suburb, in November 2023, and Kendrick Jerrod Anderson is accused of second-degree murder. After a year-long investigation, detectives detained Anderson, Ocoee police announced in a press release Friday.

A probable cause arrest affidavit states that on November 9, 2023, at around 8:30 p.m., a Publix grocery store clerk contacted 911 to report a fatal collision involving a Ford SUV.

When officers and paramedics arrived on the scene, they found that the driver—later identified as Reed—had sustained several gunshot wounds. After being taken to the hospital by first responders, he was pronounced dead.

Publix camera footage showed the SUV coming from the nearby BP/Circle K gas station, then making a sharp right turn and slamming into a parked car.

He and his girlfriend were sitting in front of the gas station when he saw the SUV and a Mercedes pull into the parking lot at around the same moment, according to a witness at the station. The Mercedes’s driver nearly ran into Reed’s SUV while attempting to pull into a pump.

The witness claimed that Reed honked his horn in response. The witness claimed that Reed and the two passengers in the Mercedes were yelling back and forth, “what, what,” as if they were assessing one another.

Reed parked his Mercedes at the pump and left the petrol station. At that point, the Mercedes’s passenger exited, approached Reed’s SUV, and reportedly fired five shots, hitting Reed multiple times. The Mercedes then took off.

Reed’s employer informed investigators that he had just completed his delivery driver shift prior to the murder, and he was sporting a Domino’s Pizza T-shirt when he passed away.

Ocoee police released surveillance images of the suspect’s Mercedes to the public after the incident. The owners of the car called the police after seeing news footage. They claimed that starting on October 27, they rented the car to Anderson for a period of two weeks.

Detectives were informed by Anderson’s buddies that he would often sit in the passenger seat and let his companion drive the car. Police said this was confirmed by street cameras.

A search order for Anderson’s phone, which purportedly indicated that he was in the vicinity at the time of the murder, was also acquired by detectives.

Police said that after Reed’s relatives met with the media to get information about the incident, he sent many text messages requesting prayers and snapped a picture of a TV station’s live coverage from the murder scene.

Officers took Anderson into custody on November 4, 2023, and took him to the Orange County Jail. However, a court granted him a $50,000 bond, which he has subsequently posted, because prosecutors did not follow through on their order for pretrial custody.

According to Reed’s obituary, following his high school graduation, he served in the US Army from 1981 to 1984. He eventually launched his own restaurant after working in the culinary sector.

Greg has a very lovely soul. He was a devoted and affectionate brother, uncle, cousin, parent, and son. The obituary claims that he never missed an opportunity to spend time with his family and children and always made time for them.

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