A couple in their thirties was found dead inside a Fruitland Park residence Thursday in what appears to be a murder/suicide.
Lake County sheriff’s deputies attempted to serve an out-of-state felony warrant at a residence in a trailer park in the 4000 block of Picciola Road but 37-year-old Randall Hopkins, of Virginia, refused to come out. Deputies then heard gunshots inside the residence and called for backup units, a report says.
The sheriff’s office’s SWAT team, a negotiator and the bomb unit responded to the incident, as did multiple deputies and at least one Fruitland Park Police officer. Dozens of emergency vehicles staged at the nearby Life Church Assembly of God nearby on Picciola Road. Those units included Leesburg fire engines, Lake EMS ambulances, multiple sheriff’s patrol vehicles, the SWAT team’s truck and a Crisis Command vehicle.
After a long standoff with no contact from anyone inside the residence, the bomb unit sent in its robot, which located the bodies of Hopkins and 36-year-old Amanda Hopkins, who had a Tennessee driver’s license.
Randall Hopkins was wanted on warrants from Virginia for violating his probation on charges of grand larceny, felony trespassing and felony fraud. No shots were fired by any deputies or officers who responded to the incident.
