WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — A Florida man has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of another man at a local church early Sunday morning.
At about 1:47 a.m. Sunday, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) was notified by a passerby about a body at the Pentecostal Church of God at 1261 34th Street NW in Winter Haven.
PCSO deputies quickly arrived and found 20-year-old Roderick Wilson, Jr. dead with multiple gunshot wounds in the church's parking lot.
PCSO Homicide Investigations and Crime Scene Investigations both responded and began collecting evidence and conducting interviews.
Security video from a building in the area captured the murder.
Later that afternoon, while PCSO detectives were in the area searching for the suspect, they spotted 22-year-old Taquion Cotton in the roadway, not far from the crime scene.
Cotton fled to a nearby residence after seeing a woman entering her home. Cotton hit the woman and put her in a chokehold while trying to get into her house.
Cotton’s mother, who lives in the area, ran to the woman’s aid and tried to assist deputies in apprehending her son. Cotton then began biting his mother, so deputies were forced to use a taser to protect the two women and get him into custody.
Once in custody, Cotton yelled at his mother, demanding she not press charges against him for biting her.
Cotton’s firearm has not yet been recovered.
Wilson’s father is a pastor at the Pentecostal Church of God, and Wilson had been living in an apartment on church property. Cotton lived a couple of streets over from the church.
According to Sherrif Grady Judd, detectives are still trying to determine Cotton’s motivation to kill Wilson, and there is currently no indication the two men knew each other prior to the incident.
Along with first-degree murder, Cotton was charged with burglary with battery, kidnapping, battery-domestic with prior conviction, harassing in a felony proceeding, resisting with violence, tampering with physical evidence, discharging a firearm in a residential area, and resisting without violence.
Cotton’s prior criminal history includes 11 felonies and six misdemeanors consisting of attempted murder, aggravated battery on a pregnant victim, burglaries, thefts, batteries, drug and weapons violations, and resisting.
If anyone has additional information regarding the murder, the firearm, and/or the relationship of the two men, call the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 863-298-6200 or to remain anonymous, call Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-226-TIPS.
