Suspect alleged to have murdered three people with bat and knife at house rented by employer
A Florida electrician allegedly killed three of his coworkers using a bat and a baseball bat.
The suspect, identified as Shaun Runyon, got into an argument and punched his supervisor “as a result of a problem”, before fleeing the job site at 2 a.m. on Friday, according to the Polk County Sheriff officials.
Runyon then returned to his home in Davenport, where he was living with his coworkers. There, he beat one man to death while he slept, killed another man on the front porch and chased another victim into the street, beating him badly with a bat, Sheriff Grady Judd said.
A fourth victim suffered critical injuries and later died at the hospital. Another man, his wife and their 7-year-old daughter escaped unharmed.
Runyon and seven co-workers and their families were living at the home rented by a Pennsylvania company, J & B Electric, Inc.
Charges
Runyon was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery.
According to a report from The Associated Press (AP), Runyon fled the home after the incidents, and turned up hours later at the home of a random couple in Lake Wales. Runyon had bloody clothes and told the couple that he’d been raped.
Judd said the man discarded his bloody clothes at the home as they urged him to go to the hospital where he was later taken into custody.
Runyon is also charged in Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania with a felony count of strangulation on May 21. He is also charged with misdemeanor counts of child endangerment, terroristic threat, reckless endangerment and other charges. He was scheduled for formal arraignment and a pretrial conference Oct. 14, according to the AP report.
A worker in his 50s was also killed at a construction site in Alberta recently, according to reports.
