Shaun Runyon electrician from Pennsylvania kills 3 coworkers at a shared Florida home after getting into an argument with a supervisor earlier that day at a job site.
An electrician who got into an argument with his supervisor at a Florida job site allegedly returned to their shared ‘gated community’ accommodation 24 hours later and attacked his colleagues with a baseball bat and a knife, leaving three of his co-workers dead according to a report.
Shaun Runyon, 39, of Nazareth, Pennsylvania got into an argument with his supervisor at 2am Friday and punched him before fleeing the Publix Corporation job site in Lakeland, Florida, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
His supervisor told police that he believed that Runyon was heading back home to Pennsylvania, as he had not been seen since the fight on Friday morning.
But Runyon allegedly returned to the temporary home that he shared with seven J & B Electric coworkers and their families at Windsor Island Resort in unincorporated Davenport.
Police say Runyon began violently attacking his colleagues with a knife and a baseball bat around 9:45 am on Saturday morning.
Identities of victims yet to be released
The sheriff confirmed that the supervisor was also living in the rented home but did not confirm the status of his condition.
Runyon allegedly beat one man to death in his sleep, and a second person was found dead on the front porch.
A third victim was badly beaten and taken to hospital in an ‘extremely critical condition’.
He died on Saturday evening, police said.
A fourth victim was chased into the street of the gated community where Runyon hit him in the back and shoulder with the baseball bat.
Another man escaped with his wife and 7-year-old daughter uninjured, according to Judd.
The identities of the victims have not yet been released by officials.
Claimed he’d been raped
Runyon then fled the scene at the Windsor Island Resort leading to a manhunt involving K9 units, helicopters, and the drone team which followed his bloody trail until it went dry, law enforcement reported.
About two hours later, Runyon appeared on the doorstep of a Lake Wales couple, wearing his bloody clothes and claimed he had been raped, the sheriff said.
Officials said the couple insisted that he check himself into a Lake Wales hospital where he was apprehended by police, the sheriff reported.
Judd claimed that Runyon has confessed to his violent crimes.
Charges have not yet been filed against Runyon, who was uninjured during the spree.
‘He knew all of these victims. We have no idea what outraged him so bad that more than 24 hours later he would come back and make an attempt to kill every one of them,’ Judd said.
Prior criminal history
Runyon reportedly has a prior criminal history that includes out of state charges of strangulation, endangering welfare of a child, terroristic threats, DUI and more.
Judd insisted in his press conference that the area is safe now that Runyon is in custody but some Windsor Island Resort residents are scared.
‘We were gone and we came home to it and we were like … my kids were terrified and, like, I don’t want to go home yet,’ Mark Loewer told Spectrum Bay News 9.
He explained that he and his family had just moved to the new community six months ago, ‘We moved here because it was sold to us as a community property for families.’
‘It was a family property and now we are faced with a lot of police activity that makes us feel not quite so safe having all of our children here.’
