Angry customer and auto shop owner shoot each other to death, Florida police say

According to investigators, a previous client’s displeasure with repairs done on his automobile two years prior contributed to the shooting at a Florida auto shop that murdered two guys.

According to the Largo Police Department, 78-year-old Eugene Frank Becker drove up to Stout’s Automotive on Wednesday in search of 52-year-old owner Jodie Stout. According to investigators, Becker got a weapon out and shot Stout, who then shot Becker many times with his own gun.

According to investigators, during the exchange of gunfire between the two, Becker and Stout both sustained injuries that put their lives in danger.

Later, both guys passed away in a hospital. Numerous police officers arrived at the area as a result of the incident.

When Becker brought a vehicle to Stout’s for service in 2021, the police claimed that evidence and witnesses showed that Becker believed he had been overcharged.

Becker was involved in an automobile accident in Pinellas Park earlier this month that “resulted in a hospitalization and the total loss of his current vehicle,” according to police. According to a family member who spoke with police, Becker has been down and angry ever since the collision, and on Wednesday he went to the store “with the intent to shoot the victim in retaliation for the perceived wrong.”

Immediately west of Tampa is Largo.

This is at least the third seeming minor disagreement in Florida this month to result in a fatal shooting.

An dispute over the purchase of a puppy led a man in Jacksonville, Florida, to fatally shoot two adults and a toddler on Saturday night, CBS station WTSP said. And in DeLeon Springs earlier this month, a 78-year-old man is accused of shooting and killing a neighbor who was pruning trees that crossed his property line.

Another incident occurred last week when a guy crashed into the car of a former assistant counsel for the U.S. counsel’s Office on a roadway in Tampa Bay, according to CBS affiliate WTSP. Authorities classified the victim’s injuries as serious but not life-threatening when they were transferred to a nearby hospital.