LAKELAND, FL (July 1, 2023) On Friday, June 30, 2023, at approximately 11:00 a.m., officers responded to reports of a shooting that had just occurred in the 2400 block of Chestnut Woods Drive in Lakeland. Once on the scene, officers located a 35-year-old male victim with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The Lakeland Police Department Patrol Unit, Polk County Fire Rescue, and the Lakeland Fire Department all arrived on the scene to begin life-saving measures. The victim was transported to Lakeland Regional Health as a trauma alert.
It was learned that the victim and a female had driven to the location to visit a relative. The female passenger stayed in the vehicle while the victim joined his relative outside the apartments and began speaking with the suspect, identified as Miguel Angel Ruiz Borges, in the apartment’s driveway area. At some point, the men began to argue and progressed into Borges shooting the victim. Despite being shot, the victim was able to overpower Borges and take the gun from him.
Borges then fled on foot and entered a nearby apartment. The woman who lived in the apartment grabbed her three-year-old child and retreated to a bedroom, where she barricaded herself and the child inside. As officers continued arriving at the scene, they began assisting the woman and child climb through the bedroom window to safety outside.
Once the mother and child were safe, officers with the Crisis Negotiation Team attempted to contact the Borges, who remained barricaded in the apartment. LPD’s SWAT team also responded to the area to assist and after more than two hours of communicating with Borges, he surrendered and was taken into custody.
Borges was transported to the Polk County Jail, charged with Aggravated Battery of a Person with a Firearm, Possession of a Firearm by a Delinquent, and Unarmed Burglary of an Occupied Dwelling.
At last update, the victim was stable and is expected to recover.
This remains an open and active investigation.
