MOUNT DORA, Fla.—A man who was a victim of a shooting, has pleaded no contest to a charge of filing a false report after Mount Dora Police Department determined he and his ex-girlfriend lied about the location where he was shot in November, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Around 3:30 p.m. Nov. 13, shots rang out at Rosewood Condominiums in Tavares, terrifying parents and a school bus full of children that had pulled into the parking lot; Rosewood has been the site of several shootings and violent crimes in recent years.
“This occurred during a time frame when children were being dropped off,” Tavares Police Department Public Information Officer Courtney Sullivan told Inside Lake in November. “This is a residential neighborhood.”
TPD responded to the scene and began searching for a victim and evidence and while they were investigating, Amarion Saucier, 21, showed up at AdventHealth Waterman in Tavares with his then-girlfriend, Josey Neat, 21. Saucier was suffering a gunshot wound to the buttocks.
Saucier and Neat told TPD Saucier was shot at Cauley Lott Park in Mount Dora and TPD requested Mount Dora Police Department’s assistance. A lieutenant with MDPD checked footage from cameras mounted in Cauley Lott Park and found no indication a shooting occurred there.
“In fact, children were observed playing on the swings, riding scooters and playing basketball within the 50-minute time frame of the recording,” an MDPD detective noted in the affidavit. “It is clear there was no shooting incident at the intersection of Highland Street and Pine Avenue inside Cauley Lott Park.”
The MDPD detective responded to the hospital to interview Saucier and Neat and when he arrived a TPD captain told him he warned the couple they could be arrested for giving a false statement to law enforcement, the affidavit states.
Saucier and Neat told the detective the shooting did occur at Cauley Lott Park when he interviewed them separately. He told Neat the video surveillance from Cauley Lott Park did match her story and, “she insisted her story was true,” the affidavit states.
A warrant was issued for both Saucier and Neat Nov. 16, 2023, for false information to a law enforcement officer and they were picked up two months later on Jan. 16 when Neat called the police on Saucier. In that incident, she told MDPD she went to her now ex-boyfriend Saucier’s apartment in Spring Harbor Apartments in Mount Dora with her brother and another woman to get a phone for her daughter. Neat said the pair got into a verbal alteration and Saucier threatened to shoot her vehicle several times, though she did not see a weapon. Saucier then broke her window trying to get to Neat’s brother, according to Saucier’s arrest affidavit in that case.
When officers ran their names, they found Neat and Saucier had warrants and they were both taken into custody. Neat was released the following day on $1,000 bond. Saucier, was arrested for an additional charge of burglary for breaking the window and has since pleaded no contest to the false information charge. He is currently serving his sentence in the Lake County Jail; the burglary case remains open.
TPD continues to investigate the November shooting.
