Press conference announcing progress related to the investigation into a December 2020 shooting that left at least three Lakeland residents wounded and one deceased. On Wednesday, February 12, 2025, at the Lakeland Police Department, senior officials from the Lakeland Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms & Explosives, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will update the public on the ongoing investigation.
WHO/WHAT: Senior law enforcement officials have charged Taqiy Lewis (27, Lakeland) with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Man federally charged five years after Lakeland woman shot and killed on Christmas Eve
27-year-old Taqiy Lewis had been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon for the death of Maebelle Cooper.
Federal charges have been filed five years after the shooting death of a 70-year-old Lakeland woman on Christmas Eve in 2020.
During a press conference on Tuesday, the Lakeland Police Department announced that 27-year-old Taqiy Lewis had been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon for the death of Maebelle Cooper.
Shortly after 5:40 p.m., on Dec. 24, 2020, Cooper was shot and killed outside of her home on Amos Avenue. The 70-year-old mother and grandmother was reportedly struck by a bullet following a “disturbance that she was not involved in.”
During Tuesday’s conference, United States Attorney Roger Handberg said the shooting happened after then-15-year-old Ralph Lamones was robbed by a group at a park in Lakeland while trying to purchase a cell phone from someone. When Ralph tried to confront them, one of the members pointed a gun at him before they left.
“That should’ve been the end of the story,” Handberg said. “But, of course, it wasn’t.”
Some of the group members, including the person with the gun, ran into Ralph again before a fight broke out. That fight eventually escalated to involving some of Ralph’s family members before they took the person’s gun away and headed home, meeting with the 15-year-old’s grandmother, Maebelle Cooper.
“Within minutes of Mae’s arrival, a white Buick sedan, a black Ford Edge SUV and a red four-wheeler arrived at the residence,” Handberg said.
The group reportedly got out of all three cars and confronted the family members, including Mae, who were all outside. Soon after, they opened fire.
“When it was over, four people had been shot,” Handberg said. “Ralph’s dad suffered a gunshot wound to his forearm, Ralph’s 13-year-old sister was shot, his mother suffered a gunshot wound to her chest.”
Meanwhile, Maebelle Cooper suffered two fatal gunshot wounds to her chest. Lakeland police launched an investigation immediately, but the case eventually went cold.
However, during an unrelated investigation in 2023, Lakeland officers and ATF agents searched Taqiy Lewis’s home to find shell casings that matched the ones found at the scene of Cooper’s death.
That discovery eventually led to Lewis being federally charged, Handberg said.