By Evangelia Ganosellis
eganosellis@news-press.com
Two brothers died minutes apart early Saturday in separate shootings - one involving Lee County sheriff's deputies.
The deputy-involved shooting was the second this year.
According to the sheriff's office, deputies responded to a call shortly before 2 a.m. on La Plata Avenue in south Lehigh Acres, near State Road 82.
Upon arrival, they found a critically injured man, 44-year-old Alexander Alfonso, in the driveway. He died moments later.
After securing the scene, deputies entered the home and came across an armed man, 41-year-old Arnold Alfonso, who opened fire on deputies. Law enforcement shot and killed Alfonso. No deputies were injured.
The sheriff's office hasn't revealed where the two men were shot or how many deputies were involved.
The first deputy-involved shooting of the year happened earlier this month.
On April 1, a deputy, yet to be named, shot and killed Timothy Baum, 54, outside his Bonita Springs home. Deputies said Baum was armed.
John Sheehan, Lee sheriff's spokesman, couldn't confirm who was responsible for the shooting that resulted in Alexander Alfonso's death in the driveway.
One other adult, who hasn't been named, was in the home at the time of the shooting, he said.
The sheriff's office responded to a domestic disturbance call at the same address at 3:28 a.m. last Sunday, according to a crime incident database. A report of that incident wasn't available Saturday.
The neighborhood where the burnt-orange-colored, single-story house sits consists of vacant lots and a sprinkling of single-family homes, many of which are for sale or have been abandoned.
Valerie Wright, who lives one block west of La Plata, said a shooting in the neighborhood does not surprise her. Her home was broken into in 2004, before she even moved in, and again in 2006.
"You hate to be judgmental, but we don't seem to have a high-caliber of people who move here," said Wright, 29.
A sign posted on the garage where the Alfonsos lived reads, "Iya Mile Botanica," a Lehigh Acres business that sells alternative medicines, followed by two phone numbers. A woman reached at one of those numbers Saturday night said she knew the brothers, but declined to talk about them.
Alexander Alfonso had previous listed addresses in Homestead, while Arnold Alfonso had former addresses in Miami and Hialeah, according to a public records search.
Both Alfonso brothers had criminal records in the Miami-Dade area, but none in Lee County.
In November 2000, both men were charged with assault, but the charges were dropped.
Arnold Alfonso had a criminal record dating to 1987, with charges including theft and resisting arrest with violence - although he was never convicted on those charges. He was convicted on two counts of burglary in 1990.
More recently, he was charged with carrying a concealed firearm and cocaine possession in November 2006, and cocaine possession again in May 2007.
A hearing was scheduled June 17 in Miami for the 2006 and 2007 charges.
On Saturday evening, the Alfonsos' home remained taped off as a crime scene, with a deputy parked in the driveway.
The sheriff's major crimes unit is still investigating the circumstances of the shootings.
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