2 killed, 1 unlikely to survive in Florida after man allegedly goes on rampage with baseball bat and knife

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Two people have died and a third is not expected to survive in Florida after authorities in Florida say a man went on a rampage with a baseball bat and a knife.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a press conference that the suspect, 39-year-old Shaun Runyon, was in Polk County, Florida, with a Pennsylvania electric company doing work for Publix Supermarkets’ when a dispute at work prompted him to return to his company-rented housing and attack several people.

Police say Runyon punched a supervisor at work around 2 A.M. on Friday and fled. He was not seen or heard from until Saturday morning around 9:45 when police received a report of a murder in Davenport, Florida, in a neighborhood where Runyon and his co-workers were being housed by their employer.

According to police, the 39-year-old beat one victim to death with a baseball bat while the victim was asleep in bed, and a second victim was found dead on the front porch. A third victim was badly beaten and is in a hospital in “extremely critical condition.” A fourth victim was hit in the neck with a bat by Runyon but escaped. Three more victims, including a 7-year-old girl, escaped without being harmed.

After the attack, Runyon fled and knocked on the door of a home in Lake Wales, Florida, covered in blood and telling homeowners he had been raped. He then shed his bloody clothes and went to a hospital at the suggestion of the homeowners. He was taken into custody by police at the hospital. 

Runyon has confessed to knowing the victims but police do not know a motive yet.

“We had no idea what outraged him so bad that more than 24 hours later that he would come back and make an attempt to kill every one of them,” the sheriff told the media.

Judd added that Runyon had a previous criminal history in Pennsylvania that includes a violent arrest related to strangulation.

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