{"id":75169,"date":"2026-07-31T19:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=75169"},"modified":"2026-07-31T19:27:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:27:19","slug":"lakeland-christmas-eve-shooting-man-sentenced-to-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/07\/31\/lakeland-christmas-eve-shooting-man-sentenced-to-30-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Christmas Eve Shooting: Man Sentenced to 30 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"
Lakeland man gets 30 years in prison for gun charge tied to Christmas Eve shooting that killed grandmother<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The fatal Christmas Eve 2020 shooting in Lakeland, Florida, resulted in federal charges and a federal prison sentence.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Case Details<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • The Incident:<\/strong> Around 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2020, a drive-by shootout occurred outside a home on Amos Avenue in Lakeland. The shooting stemmed from an earlier confrontation after a teenager was robbed during a attempt to buy an iPhone at a park.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Victims:<\/strong> 70-year-old Maebelle Cooper<\/strong>, who had arrived to make gingerbread houses with her family, was shot twice in the chest and killed. Three family members\u2014her daughter, son-in-law, and 13-year-old granddaughter\u2014were also wounded.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Break in the Case:<\/strong> The case went cold until 2023, when Lakeland Police and ATF agents executed a search warrant in an unrelated investigation and recovered a 9mm pistol from the home of Taqiy Lewis<\/strong>. Forensic testing (NIBIN) matched the gun to six shell casings from the crime scene, spent bullets at the house, and the projectile recovered from Cooper.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Legal Outcome<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Federal Conviction & Sentence:<\/strong> Lewis was charged federally as a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition in connection with the shooting. He pleaded guilty in March 2026 and was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Ongoing State Investigation:<\/strong> While federal charges resulted in a 30-year sentence, state law enforcement authorities continue to investigate Lewis regarding homicide charges in Cooper’s death.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The fatal Christmas Eve 2020 shooting in Lakeland, Florida, resulted in federal charges and a federal prison sentence. Key Case Details Legal Outcome<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","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":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDdcL3RhcWl5LWxld2lzLW1haW4taW1hZ2Uud2VicD9maXQ9OTMyJTJDNTI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTGFrZWxhbmQgQ2hyaXN0bWFzIEV2ZSBTaG9vdGluZzogTWFuIFNlbnRlbmNlZCB0byAzMCBZZWFycyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.2wEJJubXm_A-IOr0OomUmFTDwVFLzg1wVOK-XlYoQagMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA3XC90YXFpeS1sZXdpcy1tYWluLWltYWdlLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJMYWtlbGFuZCBDaHJpc3RtYXMgRXZlIFNob290aW5nOiBNYW4gU2VudGVuY2VkIHRvIDMwIFllYXJzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.iG6GRmPkZfUMZBpZ4nZOCauSCnwSOcdMJYsnSV26eqgMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[237,15431,15189,15433,15267,15434,15432,15430],"class_list":["post-75169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland","tag-christmas-eve-shooting","tag-crime","tag-federal-prison","tag-florida-news","tag-gun-violence","tag-maebelle-cooper","tag-taqiy-lewis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75169","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=75169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75173,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75169\/revisions\/75173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}