WAFC Local News – May 20, 2026, 8:32 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. Henry County put out more details on the arrest of Jose Cruz for the shooting in LaBelle. It happened at a home at 7.45 PM Monday in the Mira Verde apartments in LaBelle. The victim is 28 year old Renee Esau Lopez-Calejas. The suspect immediately surrendered to law enforcement as deputies arrived. Upon entering the residence, the victim was found on the floor unresponsive. It’s believed that a verbal altercation resulted in the death of Mr. Calejas. Henry County says they have confiscated a firearm belonging to Cruz and will test it as the possible murder weapon. Cruz is being held with no bond. He’s charged with homicide. Clewiston City Commission applauded their staff for excellent work during this year’s Sugar Festival. An estimated 25,000 visitors came to Clewiston. The city wants to hear from downtown business owners about their CRA district improvements. Building official Christopher Cooper wants to develop a plan the business owners support. He’s been visiting with them by going door to door. He has a vision like the $13 million project recently built in Boynton Beach. I know we have a lot of growth coming to the city of Clewiston, but I’ve heard a lot of people that wanna keep it small. So we have an opportunity to get big, but keep it small in our downtown district. He says he wants to get as much public input as possible. Everybody’s quick to say, well, they should have done this or they should have done that. Well, come tell they how to do it cuz we wanna structure it for you. The city of Moorhaven honored the Moorhaven girls varsity basketball team. It had an unbeaten regular season this year. Mayor Clay Browning spoke about the girls basketball performance. Proclamation recognizing the Moorhaven High School Lady Terriers on their undefeated season. The city also honored lobbyist Dale Melitta, who recently passed away. He had worked for the city for a number of decades. The South Bay Commission is considering a travel policy trying to limit wasteful spending on trips. Albert Polk says Barbara King has been traveling a lot and charging her trips to the city. City Administrator LeAndre Camel discussed the travel policy. There will be a travel line item to determine how much the mayor and each commissioner collectively known as a traveler will have available to attend conferences. Should a traveler need to increase their allotted budget limit during any given year, the request must be approved by the majority of the city and city commission. The commission honored the Rosenwald drum line that has won a couple of competitions, including the county wide one at Palm Beach Lakes High School. Mayor Joe Kyle says Palm Beach deputies reported a rash of car break-ins in South Bay again. People’s going around pulling on people’s car doors. They caught them on their ringer camera. So when I make sure that you lock the car doors at night, I was really shocked to see that there and it was happening over in the southeast area. The remains of two Florida Panthers found near LaBelle. One was found on Saturday on State Road 80, west of the Townsend Canal Bridge. The other was a female found on Fort Denoad Road near Huggins Road. A 29 year old LaBelle man charged after a short chase with fish and wildlife officers. Benji Soriano Encarnacion was on a dirt bike or motorcycle and drove onto private property and yards and housing communities and roads with kids playing on them. Charged include reckless driving and having no vehicle registration. The incident on Primrose Boulevard and Vega Court. A 28 year old Henry County woman facing child neglect charges. She allegedly knew a five year old child in her care was being sexually battered and didn’t report it. Henry County deputies say the woman stayed with the alleged abuser and was trying to flee the county when deputies intervened. DCF took possession of the girl. The mother allegedly sleeps a lot and does drugs, the incident report said. They were living in an RV with no electricity or running water. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).