ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — he Orange County Sheriff’s Office says it has arrested the suspect in a murder that they later learned was just one of a string of violent crimes.
Deputies responded to the 300 block of Duncan Court just after 6 p.m. Monday for reports of a shooting.
They arrived to find 62-year-old Oleg Denysenko lying in the driveway dead from gunshot wounds.
Investigators said surveillance video shows a black Jeep Grand Cherokee pull up to the house on Duncan Court just before 6 p.m.
Read: No apparent motive in Orange County crime spree that left 1 person dead, deputies say
Deputies say the driver appears to call Denysenko, who had been standing on the front porch, over to the car.
Investigators said Denysenko appears to have a brief conversation with the driver before suddenly being shot in the face and chest.
The driver of the Jeep then backs up and drives through the front yard of a home before speeding away.
Just before 6:30 p.m., deputies received reports of a black Jeep that crashed into a home off North Buena Vista Avenue.
Witnesses told deputies that they saw the driver of the Jeep, later identified as 30-year-old Vashawn McLendon, running from the crash.
Investigators found a shell casing inside the Jeep that matched the one left at the Duncan Court scene and two bullet holes in a window of the SUV.
Deputies learned that the Jeep was registered to McLendon’s mother, who lived a few miles from the crash scene.
Read: Deputies identify man shot and killed outside Orange County home
While heading to McClendon’s mother’s house, dispatchers got a 911 call from her saying that her son had just arrived home acting irrationally and had blood on his clothes.
Deputies responded to the home, evacuated family members, and took McClendon into custody.
According to the sheriff’s office, a third person reported being pistol whipped on Observatory Drive by the same person who had just crashed on Buena Vista Ave.
Later that night around 8 p.m., deputies were called to a home on Hudson Street where a relative of McLendon’s said he’d just arrived acting strangely and covered in blood.
Deputies responded to the home, evacuated the family members, and took McClendon into custody.
Investigators say that in addition to the shooting and hit-and-run cases, McLendon is also suspected in a pistol-whipping incident shortly after crashing into the home.
Deputies investigating deadly shooting outside Orange County home
McClendon was booked into the Orange County jail and charged with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder with a firearm, and aggravated battery with a motor vehicle.
He’s being held on no bond.
In a statement, the Orange County sheriff said the police had yet to find an explanation for the crimes.
“This horrible violent spree by McClendon, which resulted in the tragic murder of Mr. Denysenko, and serious injury to two others, has no apparent motive,” the sheriff’s office said.
Denysenko’s daughter told deputies that her father was an accomplished physicist in Ukraine, was extremely intelligent, and had a calm and shy demeanor.
She said her father had come to the United States earlier this year and was set to return to Ukraine the following month. But he stayed on when the invasion of Ukraine began.
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