Listen to 911 calls from Jake Couture shooting; reveals chaos at scene

NAPLES — Three 911 calls from the shooting that left a 17-year-old Gulf Coast High School student dead and two others injured on Friday night reveal a chaotic scene and give conflicting accounts of the events surrounding the shooting.

Now it is up to investigators from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to put together the pieces from the witnesses and surviving victims, and track down the killer. To do so, they are asking for the public’s help.

“What we’re doing right now is continuing to follow up on tips and leads, process evidence,” Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michelle Batten said. “Because of varying accounts we’ve gotten from victims and from witnesses, we still don’t know the number of suspects we’re looking for. Right now, it’s looking like two to four.”

The shooting occurred around 9:15 p.m. outside an apartment at 14830 Triangle Bay Drive at Brittany Bay Apartments in North Naples. Jake Couture was killed, while Brandon Standifer, 21, and Michael Fleitas, 15, were injured.

The three 911 calls all appear to have come in about the same time.

“Tell me what’s going on there. Someone got stabbed?” a Sheriff’s Office dispatcher asked the first caller.

“No, someone got shot,” the caller responded.

While struggling to get the caller to explain what happened and to provide a description of the shooter and the getaway vehicle, the dispatcher told the caller to calm down.

“How can we calm down?” she responded. “Someone’s dead.”

A female on the second call eventually described the shooters as two white males, possibly a teenager and a man in his 20s or 30s, wearing orange and red hooded sweatshirts. A Sheriff’s Office incident report indicates that there may have been three men standing outside the apartment trying to get in when Couture, Standifer, Fleitas and another witness, whose name was redacted from reports, arrived back from a store.

Another witness, whose name was also not released, was already inside the apartment and was refusing to open the door for the three men. It is unclear why the men may have wanted to get into the apartment.

When Standifer told the men that they needed to get away from the door, a shouting match ensued, reports said. During the argument, reports say Standifer pushed one of the men and the man then reached into his waist band, pulled out a gun and started shooting.

A third caller, who heard the gunshots from across the street, described the scene to a dispatch supervisor.

“It looks like there’s two of them over here. Two people down. Two males,” the man told the dispatcher. “It looks like one of them is not going to make it. You need to get somebody over here quick.”

The callers don’t appear to have known the victims. Throughout the three calls, a man can be heard in the background screaming “Hurry up!”, seemingly in pain.

“We need an ambulance,” one caller said. “Let’s go. He’s shot in the chest.”

The suspects appear to have fled south on Collier Boulevard in a white pickup, possibly a newer model with gold trim and tinted windows, according to the callers and to an incident report. The callers described the truck as possibly a Ford, Chevy or Dodge.

One of the callers reported hearing five gunshots. Five spent casings were found at the scene, according to the incident report.

Batten said investigators don’t have a good description of the suspects or the getaway truck.

“We’re still appealing to the public, anybody who has information to please call us,” she said.

Investigators did not release surveillance footage from the complex on Monday because it is in evidence, Batten said.

A woman who exited Fleitas’ home in Golden Gate declined comment and told reporters to stay off the property.

No one was home at the Lehigh Acres address listed to Standifer on the incident report. The home is for sale, and appears to be empty.

On July 1, 2009, Standifer was released from prison in Desoto County, where he served more than two years for burglary and grand theft.

A woman who answered the door at one of the units near where the shooting occurred also declined comment, saying investigators have instructed residents not to talk to the media.

Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to call the Collier County Sheriff’s Office at (239) 252-9300 or, to remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477).

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Connect with Ryan Mills at www.naplesnews.com/staff/ryan-mills/