WARNING: Content could be disturbing to some readers DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla. (WMBB) — Surveillance footage is giving us a better idea of the events leading up to a double shooting in DeFuniak Springs. It shows the suspect as the two victims confronted him at a strip mall Tuesday evening. David Brimmer is dead and Kaden […]
WARNING: Content could be disturbing to some readers
DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla. (WMBB) — Surveillance footage is giving us a better idea of the events leading up to a double shooting in DeFuniak Springs.
It shows the suspect as the two victims confronted him at a strip mall Tuesday evening.
David Brimmer is dead and Kaden Johnson is recovering after the Fourth of July shooting outside of a shopping center on U.S. 331.
Ring camera footage from Yamato Steak House shows the 25 minutes prior to 32-year-old Sipho Bennett pulling the trigger.
“We know Sipho pretty well. He comes up here and eats a lot. He’s very polite, very well spoken, very educated too. He came up here to eat. We were closed for the day. The two boys, when he started walking up, automatically started verbally assaulting him and racial profiling him and calling him names,” said Yamato employee Amanda Kay.
Between 5:35 and 5:50 the two men identified as Brimmer and Johnson come back to the local smoke shop multiple times, seen taunting Bennett from the parking lot.
“They were drunk. You can see it in the video. They were drunk. They were stumbling. They were slurring everything. He was actually he went into the smoke shop to get away from the boys and they recorded him inside the smoke shop, still assaulting him and coming at him,” said Kay.
Just before the clock hits 5:51- the first shot is fired. Bennett is seen covering the weapon with a jacket and fires one more shot into the driver side window.
Once the shots were fired, the victims jumped into a car backed up hitting another vehicle in the parking lot before leaving through the bushes across 331 into oncoming traffic. That’s when they landed in the La Rumba Mexican Restaurant parking lot and police arrived.
Brimmer died after being shot in the chest. Johnson was shot in the arm and will recover.
Walton County deputies located Bennett after the scene at a nearby Walgreens. Police said he confessed to the shooting and is charged with murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
According to police, Bennet said he was fearful the two men were going to get a gun and shoot him first. Police said officers found a gun in the victims car across the highway.
The entire incident was still a shock to DeFuniak Springs residents.
“But it’s very scary and maybe it’ll help people be a little bit more cautious and careful with what they say, maybe. Because it was definitely a shocker for us,” said Beef ‘O’ Brady’s bartender Jasmine Baker.
DeFuniak Springs police did not answer our request for an interview Wednesday or Thursday. They have not released the ages of the two victims.
Bennet is being held in the Walton County jail without bond.
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