Florida prosecutor orders investigation after homeowner shoots at Instacart drivers

A Florida prosecutor has ordered an investigation after a homeowner fired shots at a couple who were delivering groceries and accidentally turned onto his property.

Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor said police investigators never contacted his office about the April 15 shooting in Southwest Ranches that put at least two bullets into the car driven by 19-year-old Waldes Thomas Jr., who was with his 18-year-old girlfriend, Diamond Darville.

The lead detective from the Davie Police Department – which has a contract with Southwest Ranches to provide service – said he could not determine if either the shooter or couple committed a crime.

"Each party appeared justified in their actions based on the circumstances they perceived," the report concluded.

CALIFORNIA WOMAN ACCUSED OF KILLING HOME DEPOT EMPLOYEE SAYS GUN ACCIDENTALLY FIRED

The April 15 shooting happened on an unlit street in a semi-rural neighborhood at a home sitting on two acres.

Police said Thomas and Darville got lost while delivering groceries for Instacart shortly before 10 p.m. They were on the phone with their customer when Thomas turned their 2014 Honda Civic into an area where the shooter stores equipment for his excavation business. The address they were looking for was across the street.

The shooter and the couple gave investigators conflicting reports about what happened next.

The homeowner told officers he asked his 12-year-old son to tell the driver to leave, but soon heard the boy yelling for help. The father said he saw the car driving erratically, banging into logs and boulders, so he told his son to run.

He said the car then drove toward him and ran over his foot. Saying he feared for his life and his son's, the man drew his handgun and fired at the car's tires, but it sped away. He then called the police.

An officer found Thomas and Darville parked nearby. When he asked what happened, they replied, "We just got shot at." He said Darville was crying and Thomas appeared "extremely nervous and scared." The officer said there were two bullet holes in the car's bumper and one tire was flat.

The couple told police they thought they were at the right house, then tried to leave after the boy told them they weren't. Thomas said he put the car into reverse and hit a boulder, which was when the shooter approached "aggressively." That's when Thomas said he heard shots and drove away. Darville said she saw the shooter pull his gun and fire.

"I said, 'We got to go, we got to go,'" Darville told WTVJ. "I was scared, I'm not going to lie."

Police say they returned the shooter's gun after closing the case. He has not been charged with a crime. 

The shooting marked the latest in a spate of similar shootings across the U.S. where people have mistakenly turned onto the wrong property or gotten in the wrong car. One person has been killed and others seriously wounded. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Northern Lights potentially visible in dozens of states on Sunday due to powerful solar storm

A large part of the United States may be able to view the Northern Lights, or aurora, from Sunday evening into the early hours of Monday morning as a powerful geomagnetic storm hits Earth. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered a level four out of five on the geomagnetic storm impact scale as nightfall approached on Sunday, indicating that aurora could be visible as far south as Alabama if weather permits. 

A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), which the NOAA describes as a "billion tons of plasma ejected from the sun," erupted toward the Earth on Friday. 

"When a CME arrives at Earth, it can produce some of the biggest geomagnetic storms and thus, some of the brightest and most active auroras that extend furthest toward the equator," the NOAA explains. 

Northern states stretching along the U.S.-Canadian border from Washington to Maine should be able to see the aurora in places where there is little cloud cover, though the strength of this geomagnetic storm means that states like Alabama and California may also be able to see auroral displays. 

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The best time to view the aurora is within about one hour of midnight, so 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. local time, according to the NOAA. The geomagnetic activity is most visible when there is little cloud cover and no light pollution from artifical sources. 

Even in areas where auroral activity won't be directly overhead, people still may be able to see the geomagnetic activity by looking north from a high-altitude spot. A person can see the aurora as far as 600 miles north of their current location if the view is unobstructed. 

While the Northern Lights may be beautiful, the powerful geomagnetic storm could disrupt satellite navigation and cause widespread voltage control problems. 

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