81 year old Florida security officer murdered
Brooksville FL September 30 2023 A person who was wanted in connection with the homicide of a security guard in Brooksville was taken into custody Friday night, according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
23-year-old Jeremy Jason Patterson was taken into custody in some woods near the High Point community around Cortez Boulevard, deputies said.
At the entrance to the High Point community in Hernando County lies caution tape and bouquets of flowers.
This comes after deputies say security officer , 81-year-old Ed Mead was killed Thursday night.
“Our gate guard was there to keep us safe, and now he’s dead,” Arlene Dyer said in tears. “Why?”
“It’s disturbing,” Dyer said. “It’s disturbing that I had the opportunity to get him and I didn’t.”
Dyer lives within the community and claims she saw a man matching Patterson’s description walking by her home around 9:15 Friday morning.
“I called 911,” she said. “I said, ‘he’s in my sights, but he’s walking really fast.’”
‘” I’m going to lose him,”‘ she said continuing to describe her phone call with dispatchers. “Do you want me to stop him?”
“They said no,” she described.
“I’m devastated,” she said. “I’ve been in tears all morning; I can’t even sit down.”
“I was supposed to be getting our house ready to sell, but I can’t be outside because I don’t know where he is,” she continued. “This is supposed to be a safe community and it’s not.”
“We’re not safe anywhere.”
Dyer saw the suspect 11 hours after he allegedly killed a man.
Debby Ribbe on the other hand saw him four hours before it all happened.
“The strange kid walked past our trailer with his head down on his phone,” she said. “So my boyfriend said, ‘Look at that jerk,’ not thinking this was the killer.”
Investigators said it all started with a 911 call around 10:15 p.m. Thursday night from a woman who believed a man was having a medical emergency.
“We dispatched fire rescue,” Denise Moloney with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said. “When fire rescue got there, it was quickly determined it was a crime, not just a medical emergency.”
Moloney said they quickly realized that man had been killed.
“We dispatched detectives, deputies, [and] locked down the area,” she explained. “Using video surveillance and witness statements our detectives were able to identify a suspect very quickly.”
But for those who knew the man who was killed, it’s a devastating loss.
He is remembered as a man who loved his job and would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need.
