{"id":71900,"date":"2026-06-24T19:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=71900"},"modified":"2026-06-24T19:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:23:17","slug":"two-arrested-after-attempted-cover-up-of-accidental-shooting-in-bartow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/24\/two-arrested-after-attempted-cover-up-of-accidental-shooting-in-bartow\/","title":{"rendered":"Two arrested after attempted cover-up of accidental shooting in Bartow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On Monday, June 22, 2026, PCSO detectives responded to Bartow Regional Medical Center after being notified about a woman being treated there for a gunshot wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman was 21-year-old Madison Thomas of Bartow<\/strong>, and she had a gunshot wound to a toe on her right foot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While detectives conducted their investigation of the shooting, Ms. Thomas repeatedly provided false information such as how and where the shooting occurred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also attempted to alter information on her cell phone, and when the detective attempted to seize the phone as evidence, Thomas grabbed his wrist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, detectives went to Ms. Thomas’ residence on 80-Foot Road in Bartow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, the detectives met and spoke with Thomas’ fianc\u00e9, 22-year-old Cazar Caraker<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He too was misleading with his information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caraker was found to be a convicted felon and on probation for Lewd and Lascivious Battery on a Victim 13 or Under. Because of this, he is not allowed to be around his two youngest children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detectives determined that the children were at the residence at the time that the shooting occurred, and he tried to hide the children at a neighbor’s residence prior to the arrival of the detectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, it was learned that Ms. Thomas accidentally shot her own toe, and Cazar told her to lie to law enforcement since he is not permitted to have a firearm on their property. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas and Caraker were both arrested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas was charged with Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer (F3), Resisting with violence (F3), Resisting without Violence (M1), and Provide False Information to Law Enforcement during a felony investigation (M1).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caraker was charged with False Information During a Felony investigation (M1), Tampering with Physical evidence (F3), Tampering with a Witness (F1), Corruption by Threat (F3), Violation of Probation (F1), and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon (F2).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detectives notified the Florida Department of Children and Families about their investigation, and the children were placed with other family members. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, June 22, 2026, PCSO detectives responded to Bartow Regional Medical Center after being notified about a woman being treated there for a gunshot wound. The woman was 21-year-old Madison… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"23","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL2FycmVzdGVkLWJ5LXRoZS1wY3NvMzhhZDA5OWViMGQ1NDQxMTgwZjYyYjhkNWM4MzRmZTIud2VicD9maXQ9MTAwMCUyQzU5NiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlR3byBhcnJlc3RlZCBhZnRlciBhdHRlbXB0ZWQgY292ZXItdXAgb2YgYWNjaWRlbnRhbCBzaG9vdGluZyBpbiBCYXJ0b3ciLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ._ZM27EiQ05s-YwzEJ1bqJfBnmjjztasxi91N9tw7U_8MQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA2XC9hcnJlc3RlZC1ieS10aGUtcGNzbzM4YWQwOTllYjBkNTQ0MTE4MGY2MmI4ZDVjODM0ZmUyLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJUd28gYXJyZXN0ZWQgYWZ0ZXIgYXR0ZW1wdGVkIGNvdmVyLXVwIG9mIGFjY2lkZW50YWwgc2hvb3RpbmcgaW4gQmFydG93IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.yx6AufFhS4ZOKC0t_hSk9UBWmzDWp2r4E6z2KBj9q08MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[14995],"class_list":["post-71900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sheriffs-corner","tag-two-arrested-after-attempted-cover-up-of-accidental-shooting-in-bartow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71902,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71900\/revisions\/71902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}