Eustis

EUSTIS, Florida—Three teens, who are documented gang members and well-known to local law enforcement were arrested again last week, this time for burglarizing vehicles, according to several arrest affidavits.

On May 30, Eustis Police Department responded to a call about three suspicious males in black hoodies and masks on Beaumont Lane in the Arbor Hills neighborhood and found three males matching the description in the area of Waycross Avenue and Abrams Road around 3:30 a.m.

The trio, later identified as Gyrice Trayvon Foster, 18, Kristine Morell Morris, 15, and Artavious Jamarr Williams, 17, all of Eustis, tried to run but complied when an officer ordered them to the ground with his taser. The trio was searched and a wallet belonging to a victim on Gables Drive in the 44 Gables neighborhood was found on Morris, according to the affidavit.

Video surveillance later showed the teens entering another vehicle on Gables Drive and all three were wearing black latex gloves that were taken into evidence. At the time of the crime, Morris was also wanted for armed robbery and was taken into custody on a juvenile pickup order, along with his new crimes. Morris is also on probation and was equipped with a GPS ankle monitor when he was taken into custody. All three teens have prior convictions for theft, the affidavit states.

In the robbery case, Morris is accused of setting up a man who was trying to mentor him after he withdrew money from an ATM in downtown Eustis on Halloween 2022. The man picked Morris up and when he stopped at the ATM, Morris was chatting with, another documented gang member, who Inside Lake is not naming because he has not been charged with a crime. Morris asked the victim to pick that teen up at a home in Orange County and then they returned to Eustis, where they picked up a documented gang member, and then traveled to Lake Harris Cove Apartments in Leesburg, the site of another unrelated shooting late last month.

When they arrived at Lake Harris Cove, they picked up another male. Inside Lake is also not identifying that male because he has not yet been charged in the robbery incident. They drove back to Orange County and the victim thought one of the teens was picking up some clothes, but when he tried to reenter the vehicle, he was armed with a large rifle and the victim told him not to bring the rifle and he stayed in Orange County, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The group returned to Eustis and were in the area of Briarcliff Avenue and South Street where they picked up an unknown male. The victim exited the black GMC he was driving to “dap them up,” and the unknown male pushed away from the victim and drew a gun from his waistband and pointed at the victim and reportedly said, “Run your (expletive,)” which means “empty your pockets,” the victim told police. The victim was then robbed for the $200 he withdrew from the ATM earlier in the day, and all the teens fled the scene, the affidavit states.

Cell phone records and Instagram messages later backed up the victim’s story. The teens are documented members of “4wayy” a gang believed to be responsible for multiple shootings, grand theft auto reports and burglaries in Eustis.

The teens were all charged with burglary and petit theft in the May 30 Eustis vehicle burglaries.

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