By By Adam Prestridge
special to the standard
A few hours after the shooting death of Kenneth Porter Thursday evening in Nokomis, deputies with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department had the suspects behind bars.
Clarence Luker, 37, and Lorraine Gray, 50, were both apprehended just before midnight after William Reynolds, the operator of a local Web site, spotted them returning the scene of the Nathan Road murder, Escambia County Sheriff Grover Smith said.
Smith said the actions by his investigators and deputies were key in making an arrest.
Smith said the suspects in the murder are a couple, and Porter was Gray’s daughter’s significant other.
One deputy’s quick actions helped him to cuff one of the fugitives by himself, smith said.
Porter was shot at approximately 7:10 p.m. during an alleged argument between Luker and Gray over a ladder leaning against the suspect’s travel trailer, according to witnesses and deputies at the scene. He was transferred to Atmore Community Hospital and later airlifted to USA Medical Center in Mobile where he was pronounced dead following surgery at 9:20 p.m.
Smith said a .22-caliber revolver is believed to have caused the fatal wound. The gun has yet to be located, he said.
Following the shooting, the suspects fled the scene in a blue and silver late 1980s model van. A few hours later, the couple returned to the trailer where they were spotted. Gray was quickly detained at about 11 p.m.
Luker fled the scene but was apprehended by Johnson about an hour later while dog teams from Alabama and Florida were tracking the suspect.
Both Luker and Gray have confessed to being the person that pulled the trigger, Smith said. They are currently being held at Escambia County Detention Facility in Brewton. Both were charged with murder, Smith said, and are currently awaiting bond hearings.
The murder is still under investigation.