Man Shot While Waiting At Stoplight

Posted: 6:24 am EDT March 12, 2009Updated: 5:05 pm EDT March 12, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando police are looking for two people who shot a man at gunpoint while waiting at a stoplight. When the driver tried to speed away, the suspects opened fire.
Eyewitness News spoke with the police department's watch commander and was told the victim's injuries are not life threatening.

Stanley Stinson, 45, was on his way home when he was stopped by the stoplight at Kirkman Road and Arnold Palmer Drive (see map) at about 11:15 Wednesday night. A man and a woman in another car pulled up next to him when one of them jumped out with a gun.
When Stinson tried to drive away from the suspects, gunshots were fired. One of the bullets struck the victim in the leg, but he managed to drive himself to the McDonald's parking lot at the same intersection. That's when he called 911.

"The guy pulled up into this parking space and told everybody, 'I've been shot. I've been shot,'" said eyewitness Kim Peters.

Orlando police soon surrounded the McDonald's while crime scene investigators searched the victim's four-door, black car for any fingerprints the suspects might have left. They were able to collect some of the bullet casings in the middle of the road.

"When they opened the door, one of the shell casings fell out of the door, the other one was lodged in his hip," said Peters.

As of Thursday morning, police only know they were driving a light blue Nissan Altima.
Some eyewitnesses who were inside the McDonald's restaurant believe they may have seen the car police are looking for, coming through the drive-thru just before the shooting took place.
The restaurant has surveillance cameras throughout the property. Police will check those recordings to see if they can identify the suspect's vehicle.

Stinson remained heavily sedated in the hospital. Police hope to speak with him later to see if they can get a better description of the suspect's and their car.

Technically, the incident didn't happen in Metrowest, which starts across the street. But the Orlando police department's west tactical unit has been working to reduce crime in the area since last year because residents felt like crime was out of control and some of them still do.
"You tell someone you live in Metrowest and they look at you like you live in a war zone," said Metrowest resident Eric kessous.

Last year between January and March the tactical unit made 236 arrests, 165 in 2009.