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Third suspect in shooting located

By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published September 2, 2006

VALDOSTA, Ga. - Georgia deputies have tracked down the third suspect in the Aug. 23 shooting death of Daniel Lopez in Polk County.

Michael James Longoria, 33, was arrested after he fled deputies who found him at a business owned by people he knows in Valdosta at 9 p.m. Friday.

The Lowndes County Sheriff's Office arrested Longoria after a short pursuit on foot. Two Polk County Sheriff's Office detectives were en route to the jail to interview him.

Polk officials said Longoria and Jose Manuel Gonzales, 18, were with 17-year-old Kimberly Harrington of Plant City when she allegedly shot and killed Lopez and wounded another man in a mobile home in Lakeland.

According to the Sheriff's Office, Lopez was killed over comments he had made to three teenage girls at the home. They phoned Harrington, and deputies say she arrived with the two male suspects and shot the victims.

Harrington allegedly held the girls against their will at different locations.

On Thursday, deputies arrested Gonzales in Plant City and charged him with first-degree murder, armed burglary and aggravated assault.

Deputies said Gonzales and Longoria face first-degree murder charges because they were with Harrington and were "active participants" in Lopez's murder.

Harrington was arrested last week in Hillsborough County and charged with fatally shooting Lopez in a bathroom and wounding the other man.

Longoria was being booked into Lowndes County jail late Friday and was expected to be extradited back to Polk County next week, said sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers.

[Last modified September 2, 2006, 06:24:41]