Residents on Starlite Lane in Port Charlotte were told to shelter in place just after 5 p.m. on Oct. 9 after multiple reports of gunfire in the neighborhood. According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, witnesses said 37-year-old Travis Allan Price fired several guns into the ground and into the air near homes. Deputies set up a perimeter and spent hours speaking with Price by phone before taking him into custody with bean bag rounds when he entered the screened-in entry area of his home.
Price faces three firearm-related charges: possession of a firearm while subject to a domestic violence injunction, discharging a firearm in public, and improper exhibition of a firearm. An active domestic violence injunction already prohibited him from possessing firearms, and he has since been cleared for mental health treatment. Sheriff Bill Prummell thanked residents for cooperating, noting that shelter-in-place requests are rare and that their patience allowed deputies to focus on what he described as an unpredictable and dangerous situation.
This case touches two conversations that matter here on the Suncoast: how firearm restrictions tied to domestic violence injunctions get enforced, and how agencies respond when a mental health crisis involves weapons. In this instance, the outcome was an arrest without serious injury. What do you think would make a difference in how incidents like this are handled locally?
