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Lakeland Police Department posted a statement on its Twitter account, saying officers responded to multiple reports of a shooting at about 3:43 p.m. local time. In the original statement, police said nine people were injured, including two critically. Police Chief Sammy Taylor later said a 10th victim was reported. Taylor said at a press conference Monday night that police believe four people shot from the windows of a four-door Nissan at victims on both sides of the street....

“I really hope that we’re going to have accountability for the origins of the COVID pandemic because this just did not need to happen,” DeSantis said at a press conference. “The Chinese Communist Party is primarily to blame, but there’s also American money that very well may have flown to Wuhan.” On Monday, DeSantis signed two bills aimed at preventing CCP from influencing Florida’s educational institutions and from committing corporate espionage....

Nearly 18,000 new cases on average are being reported each day in the state, marking a stark increase from the average of less than 2,000 recorded in the first week of July. Florida’s total COVID-19 death count since the onset of the pandemic surpassed 39,100. Despite the influx of cases, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has resisted imposing mask mandates and other health and safety regulations in the state to curtail the spread....

Officers on Tuesday responded to reports of a man and woman arguing at an apartment complex in Cutler Bay, Florida, according to a report from CBS Miami, which obtained an arrest report. Upon arrival, law enforcement heard the dispute, reported the outlet, and made several commands for those inside the apartment to open the door. Police eventually kicked in the door after hearing the woman scream, reported WPLG, which also obtained a copy of the arrest report....

“They called me to the little office in the bus and said, ‘I’m sorry we cannot receive your blood,’” Diaz said to NBC 6 South Florida. Diaz had said ‘yes’ in the section of the OneBlood plasma donation form that asked if he had engaged in sex with a man in the past three months. “When I left that place, I felt contaminated, discriminated. Not because I’m a gay person, but because they’re gonna imply that I have HIV,” explained Diaz....

According to Fox 13, Luke Vidal was in a Publix parking lot in North Fort Myers, Florida around 6:45 a.m. on Friday when he spotted a lone, wandering gator. He recorded a video of the scene and later posted it to Facebook, where it garnered thousands of reactions and comments. In the video, the alligator walks slowly and steadily through the abandoned parking lot. The creature is clearly quite large: as it crawls, its massive tail can be seen dragging along the pavement....

Hurricane Ian ravaged Florida on Wednesday, hitting the state’s west coast with the force of a major Category 4 hurricane. Sanibel Island was decimated in the storm and the Sanibel Causeway was so severely damaged that it cut residents of the island off from mainland Florida. Trapped residents had to be airlifted from their homes and while some applauded the heroics of the rescue, others questioned why it was necessary at all....

The Orlando Sentinel apologized to readers in its Editorial section on Friday, and denounced Waltz for supporting a lawsuit brought by Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court that is attempting to overturn election outcomes in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. “We apologize to our readers for endorsing Michael Waltz in the 2020 general election for Congress. We had no idea, had no way of knowing at the time, that Waltz was not committed to democracy,” the apology began....

The Florida Department of Health has said all the state-run sites for administering the antibodies will close following the FDA’s decision in what will be seen as a blow to Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis, a Republican, has been an outspoken advocate of monoclonal antibodies as a COVID treatment and has been pressuring the federal government to provide more of them to his state. On Monday, the FDA revoked emergency use authorization for two monoclonal antibody treatments, produced by Regeneron and Eli Lilly respectively....

The program will take place at Florida Power and Light’s Cape Canaveral plant, where the warm water produced by the plant attracts groups of the animals as the ocean cools in the winter. The manatees will be fed by humans, although the officials reiterated that it is still illegal for civilians to feed wild animals in Florida. Water pollution from farms and sewage in the state breeds harmful organisms like blue-green algae, which kills or stifles the growth of underwater seagrass, the main source of food for the manatees....

The victim, identified as 20-year-old Florida resident Justin Swaggerty, died following a jump at Skydive Carolina in Chester on Saturday, June 6. According to a statement to WSOC, Swaggerty’s free fall portion of the dive was successful, including the deployment of his parachute. During the landing sequence, the 20-year-old missed his intended target and collided with an aircraft which was stationed on the ground. “We are devastated by this loss,” Skydive Carolina owner Danny Smith said in a statement....

The matchup was originally scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff but had been pushed up to noon earlier this week. Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher told reporters earlier Thursday the school had provided assistance to FSU players’ families. “The NCAA has allowed us to help some of the families out of there that didn’t have the resources to get them out — some of the kids and children — which we have gladly done, and will do,” Fisher said, according to the Orlando Sentinel....

After battling back from second half deficits against Clemson, N.C. State, Notre Dame, Louisville and Miami this season, Florida State survived another close call Saturday night in the ACC Championship Game. MORE: When will it be enough for Saban? | Scoreboard | Week 15 photos The Seminoles beat Georgia Tech, 37-35, after recovering an onsides kick with less than two minutes to play and running out the clock, to remain the nation’s only undefeated team....

A 21-year-old woman named Shamaya Lynn was on a Zoom conference call with co-workers when a toddler suddenly appeared in the background of Lynn’s video feed. Lynn’s co-workers then heard a noise and saw Lynn fall over, never to return. Lynn’s co-workers then contacted the police. Officers and paramedics eventually found the woman with a fatal gunshot wound to her head, the Orlando Sentinel reported. “Investigators determined that the injury was caused by a toddler who found a loaded handgun, which was left unsecured by an adult in the apartment,” Altamonte Springs Police Officer Rob Ruiz said in a statement....

Coral Springs Police said Yvonne Serrano, 51, shot and killed the 21-year-old woman, identified as Daniela Tabares Maya, in the early hours of Saturday morning, then called 911 to report the dead body. Officers responded to a residence in the 1600 block of NW 100th Drive in Coral Springs, Florida, at around 5.55 a.m. on Saturday after getting Serrano’s 911 call. There they found the victim dead from an apparent gunshot wound....

Officers were dispatched to a residence in the 1600 block of W. 10th Court in Panama City on Saturday afternoon, the Panama City Police Department said in a news release. When officers arrived at the scene, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the face. He was transported to a local hospital in serious condition, police said. Kristi McCaffery, 55, was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder....

“I may have just had a mild heart attack,” Torrie Heathcoat, said in the post on Sunday. The reptile made its way into her home during the weekend after her garage door was open for 10 minutes. After they discovered the alligator hissing by the door to the home, Torrie called 911 and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Sunday evening. Torrie said in her post her husband, Andy, came close to the reptile....

Manny Pacquiao had a run-in with the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Wednesday after Floyd Mayweather’s camp had a concern over the size of his cup. No, seriously. MORE: Fight time, date, odds | Roach: Will Mayweather fight? | Pacquiao knows he’s going to win As the story goes, Mayweather was worried that Pacquiao’s cup was too big and would sit too high, thereby protecting him from body blows. That led to this weird snapshot of Pacquiao lifting up his shirt to show off his cup to state officials in a locker room:...

Mayweather went after an ex-girlfriend, who will remain nameless in this post to protect the privacy of the person so flagrantly ignored by the boxer, stating the reason the two of them broke up was her decision to have an abortion. "The real reason me and [redacted] broke up was because she got a abortion, and I'm totally against killing babies. She killed our twin babies. [redacted] #FloydMayweather #TheMoneyTeam #TMT....

*The fight was supposed to take place on May 14, but it was postponed due to the death of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It was also supposed to take place on a helipad of the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. A bronze medalist in the 1996 Olympics, Mayweather made his pro debut that year. The man once called “Pretty Boy” has won titles in the super featherweight, lightweight, welterweight and light middleweight divisions....