'Tax office' doubled as illegal after-hours club in Orlando, deputies say
ORLANDO, Fla. - An illegal after-hours club that was disguised as a tax office was the scene for a double homicide last month. It's one of many businesses the Orange County Sheriff's Office is cracking down on as part of its mission to shut down after-hours clubs.
"OCSO will continue to crack down on illegal after-hours clubs, because too many people have been hurt or killed in violent crimes that take place in and around them," deputies wrote on Facebook. "Establishments selling alcohol after hours attract dangerous criminal activity and violence. Stopping them is essential to keeping our community safe."
FOX 35 reported on the incident last month.
The "tax office" was discovered in late March. Two men were found shot in a shopping center on North Pine Hills Road just after 3:30 a.m. on March 23. Th men, identified as 56-year-old Errol Sylvester Irving and 49-year-old Joslyn Michael Gray, were pronounced dead on the scene.
In the hours after the shooting, deputies determined that the shooting occurred within an illegal after-hours establishment that was labeled as a tax office. They said evidence suggests the "tax office" was being used "exclusively" to host after-hours activities.
In addition to this "tax office," the Orange County Sheriff's Office shared a list on Facebook of the recent after-hours establishments that have been shut down in the past year or so due to violent crimes:
- December 18, 2023: 4 people shot in the parking lot of Upstate Hall, an after-hours club on S. Orange Blossom Trail
- October 29, 2023: 3 men shot at a hookah lounge illegally selling alcohol after hours on Old Winter Garden Road
- September 1, 2023: Man stabbed at an after-hours bar on Aloma Avenue
- July 8, 2023: Man shot in parking lot of a hookah lounge acting as an after-hours club on Turkey Lake Road
- July 5, 2023: Woman shot in parking lot of a hookah lounge acting as an after-hours club on W. Sand Lake Road
- January 1, 2023: Man stabbed at an after-hours club on Edgewater Drive
"We know that Illicit after-hours operations attract criminal activity, violence and illegal drugs. That’s why Sheriff Mina pushed for harsher penalties for illegal alcohol sales in this legislative session," the Orange County Sheriff's Office said at the time of the March 23 incident. "{That legislation – which passed in the Florida House and Senate unanimously - makes illegal alcohol sales a felony and gives law enforcement a powerful tool to eliminate these dangerous clubs and safeguard our communities."