Background: News footage of the scene where two people were fatally shot in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 3 (WFLA). Inset: Louis Jules (Hillsborough County Sheriff”s Office).
A Florida man admitted to police that he was the one seen on a shooting victim’s cellphone camera, and now he has been charged with two counts of murder.
Louis Jules, 59, was arrested on Friday after police identified him as the alleged perpetrator of a shooting that killed two people. According to a criminal report affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, officers from the Tampa Police Department responded to a call of two people being shot on Friday morning. When police arrived, they found a male victim on the ground and a female victim hanging out of a white pickup truck. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
But the dead woman was right next to her cellphone, and according to the police, it recorded the last moments of her life.
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According to the affidavit, the phone was found near the unidentified woman’s body and “appeared to be recording an active video.”
Police said that the video showed a man who was eventually identified as Jules standing outside the truck’s rear passenger seat with a set of keys and a cup. The affidavit said Jules reached inside the vehicle and began rummaging around. The unidentified male victim reportedly said, “Hey, you can’t go in my car.” The woman then said, “You can’t search [his] vehicle.”
After the verbal warning by the alleged victims, Jules was seen throwing the liquid contents of the cup at the man while reaching for a semi-automatic firearm from his right side.
“The video then shows the defendant point the firearm in the direction where the male victim was found and racks the slide back,” police said. The woman was heard screaming as gunshots rang out, at which point the police said the video became “very shaky” as the female victim tried to move to safety.
Police said that “several more gunshots” were heard while she moved. After the alleged shooting ended, Jules was seen closing the vehicle’s door and leaving the scene.
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Two of Jules’ neighbors and his landlord identified Jules as the man in the video that allegedly depicted the double homicide. Police found Jules at someone else’s home with a red pickup truck registered to him. As officers approached him, police said he “discarded a black semi-automatic pistol” into the bed of the truck.
Police read Jules his rights and interviewed him, during which he allegedly admitted to knowing both of the victims and claimed that they “owed him money” for a vehicle he sold to them. They had an argument the previous night, Jules allegedly told police, and then they showed up at his home the next morning. Jules believed that they showed up that morning to give him the money they owed him, police said. He thought they were driving him to an ATM to get cash, so he started to get in the truck.
When they told him to get out of the truck, he realized they were not taking him anywhere, and he stated that he “was very angry,” police said. When authorities showed Jules the video, he identified himself.
Jules was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of tampering with evidence. He is being held without bond at the Hillsborough County Jail. His next court date is scheduled for Oct. 9.
