UMATILLA, Florida—A man out on bond for molesting a 5-year-old girl in 2020, was arrested Saturday after firing two shots near a woman who did not want him around her daughter, according to an arrest affidavit.
Around 9 p.m. Saturday, Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the Tropical Whisper mobile home park in unincorporated Umatilla in reference to a battery. The victim told LCSO she went to her neighbor’s house to retrieve her daughter, who was with Joshua “Boops” Leon Redmond Dudley, 28, and his girlfriend. Dudley is facing several sex-related charges involving a minor; the victim’s daughter’s age is not listed in the affidavit.
The woman said Dudley began arguing with her and grabbed her by the hair and threw her down, the affidavit states. Dudley then pulled out a gun and the victim yelled at him to let her go. Dudley fired a shot into the air, while holding the victim down and then fired a second shot next to her head. The victim begged Dudley not to kill her because of her daughter and he reportedly said, “You should have thought about that first.”
Dudley then let her go and fled the area and was later apprehended near the now-defunct Pine Meadows Golf Course. He was arrested on two counts of aggravated battery with a weapon, discharging a firearm and carrying a concealed firearm. The arresting deputy requested Dudley be held on no bond due to his unresolved lewd and lascivious molestation case.
In that case, Dudley was arrested after a woman called Leesburg Police on Aug. 25, 2020, and said LPD needed to respond quickly before she killed Dudley. The witness told police Dudley molested a young girl and she did not understand why he would do that. Police questioned Dudley who reportedly uttered, “Man I (expletive) up and going away for a long time I shouldn’t have done that,” and then said, “I don’t know why I did that there is something wrong with me,” the affidavit in that case states.
Dudley told police the victim — who was only 5 years old — began talking “sexual” to him and asked him to go to the laundry room with him. A sex act took place in the laundry room for about five minutes until the witness entered the room, according to the affidavit.
Dudley’s next court appearance in that case is scheduled for March 29.
