Sheriff: Man tries, fails to kill victim 3 times

Investigators say a Lakeland man cheated death – or at least serious injury – three times in the span of a few seconds after he confronted an angry man outside a doctor’s office on Wednesday.

It just wasn’t Addison Whiteside’s day to die.

“We’re fortunate we’re not investigating a homicide here,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

Judd says Whiteside accompanied a friend to the doctor’s office on South Florida Avenue because the friend was being stalked by her ex-husband, Gibson Hyacinthe. Whiteside waited in the parking lot while the friend was inside the office.

Surveillance video shows Hyacinthe approaching the building and Whiteside confronting him. The sheriff says Hyacinthe pulled out a concealed weapon card and showed it to Whiteside.

“Whiteside basically said he didn’t care about that and told him to leave,” said Judd. “And that’s when Hyacinthe pulled out his gun, said ‘I’m going to kill you’, held it about three or four feet from Whiteside’s head, and pulled the trigger.”

The gun didn’t fire.

The sheriff says Hyacinthe removed the magazine from the .380 caliber handgun, popped it back in, racked the slide, and pulled the trigger again – but it still wouldn’t fire.

Whiteside then opened the door to the doctor’s office and yelled for someone to call 911. Judd says in the meantime, Hyacinthe retreated to his car and tried to use it as a weapon.

“I’m not sure why, but Whiteside walked out into the road, going after this guy who just tried twice to shoot him, and that’s when Hyacinthe gunned the engine and tried to run over Whiteside,” said Judd.

Surveillance video shows Whiteside jumping out of the way of a white sedan that barely misses him.

Deputies quickly caught up with Hyacinthe and arrested him. He’s in jail with no bail, charged with two counts of attempted murder, battery, and aggravated stalking.