Judd announces arrest hours after public warning to suspected shooter

WINTER HAVEN (FOX 13) - Hours after Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd sent out two warnings to a suspected shooter and the people who may be harboring him, Judd announced his deputies made an arrest.

Judd said Wednesday that his detectives were going to leave no stone unturned in their search for 18-year-old Jahmari McCray. By Wednesday evening, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said it had arrested McCray in the Gordonville/Bartow area of the county.

McCray is accused of shooting 62-year-old Melissa Thomas, for no apparent reason, while she was sitting in her car.

It happened at the Circle K on Spirit Lake Road in Winter Haven.

She has had several surgeries and remains in the hospital.

“When we come to arrest you, don’t you dare touch a gun,” Judd said before the arrest was made. "You need to be peaceable and give up if you know what’s  good for you.”

He also said that anyone trying to hide McCray could go to jail. It was unclear whether anyone else had been arrested in connection to McCray.

Judd said McCray already has a felony record and was on probation. He says McCray cut off an ankle monitor in early December and five days later, shot Thomas.

McCray now faces charges of attempted murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and discharging a firearm in public.