Florida man shot dead on girlfriend’s porch

By DEUCE NIVEN

     Gunfire killed a Florida man visiting his girlfriend Saturday afternoon, Tabor City Police Chief Donald Dowless said.

     Jermaine Rodrick Nelson Vickers, 30, of Brandon, Florida, was shot and killed on the front porch of his girlfriend’s School Street home at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dowless said. Dowless said the woman, who Vickers “was dating,” was inside the home at the time of the shooting and not involved.

     Few other details are being released as Tabor City Police and the State Bureau of Investigation seek the killer, Dowless said.

     “We are working hard to solve this,” Dowless said. “We have some good leads, and some suspects.”

     Police and SBI agents were on the scene of the murder for six hours Saturday, Dowless said. A “big family” lives in the School Street home, Dowless said, and

     Vickers, also known as “Yellow” and “Boo”, has been living with an Aunt in the Longs area for “a couple of months or so,” Dowless said, and had been staying with his girlfriend “off and on for about a month.”

     A reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in this case, Dowless said. Anyone with information may contact the Tabor City Police Department at 910-653-3149, Chief Dowless at 910-234-0949, or the SBI at 800-334-3000.

     Check back here for updates as warranted, and for more on this story see the next Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.