BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The man accused of opening fire on a Rockledge auto shop was moved from a hospital to the Brevard County Detention Center Tuesday, according to jail records. He is expected to go before a judge later today for a first appearance hearing.
Robert Lorenzo Bailey Jr., 28, has been charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 27 shooting at Schlenker Automotive. Rockledge police said he killed one employee and wounded a second when he fired at least a dozen shots in the parking lot.
Upon hearing the shots, a manager and another employee pulled out their guns, police said. Bailey was struck twice by one of the employees. He had been treated at Health First's Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne until Tuesday, reports News 6 partner Florida Today.
The employee killed was 50-year-old Roger Smith. The other employee who was shot, 25-year-old David Andres Cordero, was paralyzed from his wounds.
"Everyone said the same thing. They were just shocked. They couldn't believe it," Bailey's former manager at the Dog n Bone British Pub in Cocoa Village reacted to the shooting in disbelief.
"Sweet, kind, innocent, couldn't harm a fly is how we perceived him," Diana Lynn told News 6 Wednesday.
Lynn said a week before the shooting, Bailey was fired from his job as a doorman because he punched a customer.
That was the only time Lynn says she ever saw Bailey act violent.
"From what I remember, he was a good guy in school," said Allen Dreiling who graduated from Rockledge High School with Bailey in 2007.
Like Lynn, Dreiling also remembered Bailey for better reasons than what he's accused of.
"Great football player, people person, when I saw him on the news with what he did I was definitely shocked," Dreiling said. "From my experience with him, he wasn't that type of dude at all."
A spokesperson for the city of Rockledge told News 6 the victims would likely be honored at Wednesday night's city council meeting with a moment of silence. It's the first council meeting since the shooting on Black Friday.