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NEWS

The Zombicon shooting: What I saw

BEN BRASCH, and Michael Braun
The News-Press
The News-Press and news-press.com breaking news reporter Ben Brasch.

I had fake blood smeared on my cheeks, just joking around with friends at Zombicon when it started.

A mass of people with fake flaking flesh fleeing. Each had that look in their eye people get when they're running for their lives. Because they were.

Fort Myers police whipped their retractable batons out and shoved them into the chests of monsters and men alike, pushing them to the walls of downtown sandwich shops.

The cops tried to control chaos. Tried.

I ran upstream past people draped in polyester get-ups and some who looked like their head was unzipped. No matter how much makeup they had caked on, you could see the terror on their faces.

But even those with the real guns and badges in the blue costumes looked scared.

This was their nightmare. Think about it, they have to sort out nearly 20,000 people — some drunk — running around with many sporting fake blood and fake guns.

Running along the south side of First Street, I saw a white leg streaked with blood sticking out from the knot of emergency staff treating the man.

Further east, a man on his back in the street was not moving. After interviews with his friends and family today, I now know that was the body of 20-year-old Expavious Tyrell Taylor.

I hopped on a metal bench and saw a crowd of people give way to an emergency golf cart and help treat the wounded.

"Back up!" officers shouted. "Get out, get out, get out now!"

Cops scurried about, using crime scene tape to quarantine the main artery of downtown.

They barked at a man in a motorized wheelchair with fake blood pouring from his right eye to move forward. Staff security, deputies and officers all ordered everyone to go home. The cops were doing their job, I mean, there was an active shooter in the packed downtown area. Everyone was a suspect.

Everyone still is. No one is in handcuffs for the shooting.

The night of my first Zombicon, the much-hyped evening of downtown debauchery, ended at 3:36 a.m. with a text to my mother: "There was a shooting in Fort Myers. I was at the event. I am OK. I love you."

The scene from Michael Braun, breaking news reporter at The News-Press:

After spending several hours at Zombicon in downtown Fort Myers, my little group had just found a place to sit in Patio de Leon when a flood of people, most in fake bloody clothing and adorned with fake cuts, skin tears and cleaved heads, began running and pushing their way through the narrow courtyard walkway in a panic.

Michael Braun

It was not clear what had happened until I found a Fort Myers police officer and he told me there had been a death.

That changed everything.

Up until then the night had been pleasant, weather-wise and otherwise. My 9-year-old daughter was enjoying looking at all the odd, weird and strange clothing, people, and costumes lurching about and we walked the streets, including the crime scene about a few minutes before the shootings.

The ensuing atmosphere along downtown after 11:45 p.m. Saturday night was one of frantic searching, some people crying and hugging, police shutting down bars and restaurants, stringing up crime tape and generally trying to clear the downtown area.

Along with my wife, I searched for my 16-year-old daughter, who was walking around Zombicon with friends, and found her safe and hiding out inside the Indigo Hotel lobby. My 20-year-old son, who had left downtown a short time before, called to make sure we were safe.

The scene became clearer as we left Patio de Leon and it was quickly cordoned off by police. Standing along Main Street we watched the Fort Myers Police Department and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office begin to clear booths and people to allow greater traffic flow.

Police also started shutting down restaurants and bars in the crime scene area as the thousands who had been enjoying the Zombicon began to filter home.