News and Investigations

The Polk County Sheriff's Office is investigating a homicide that occurred on February 16, 2020, in Poinciana (commonly known as Kissimmee, but within unincorporated Polk County) which led to a SWAT callout and a deputy-involved shooting. The homicide suspect is deceased, and no deputies were injured.

Preliminary information and notes from Sheriff Judd's news briefing (can be found on the Polk County Sheriff's Office Facebook page) are as follows:

At 7:23 p.m. on Sunday, February 16, 2020, the PCSO ECC (Emergency Communications Center) received multiple 911 calls about gunshots and screaming heard in the area of Finch Lane in Poinciana. When deputies arrived on-scene, they located a grey Nissan Altima parked in the roadway, with a deceased male (Orlando Riviera-Vasquez, DOB 3/21/79) in the driver's seat.

Additionally, a female victim inside the car had been shot but was still alive. This victim told deputies that the suspect who shot her and Riviera-Vasquez went by the name of "Shorty," and that he was a Hispanic male who fled in a silver car. Ultimately, Rudy Arenas (DOB 7/23/79) was positively identified as the suspect, and deputies quickly learned he was in the area of Wood Lane in Poinciana.

Deputies arrived on Wood Lane and observed Arenas run into a house that belongs to one of his relatives, still armed with a handgun that detectives determined that he had stolen from another person earlier on Sunday. Arenas barricaded himself and refused to surrender. The PCSO SWAT team responded to the scene to negotiate Arenas' surrender. Arenas repeatedly told deputies that he would shoot them and/or shoot himself if they approached. The negotiations went on through the evening and into the early morning hours of February 17, 2020, where deputies observed him on multiple occasions in possession of a handgun and holding the handgun to his head.

Around 3:00 a.m. on Monday, February 17th, the PCSO SWAT team used two different less-lethal weapons - gas canisters and beanbag rounds - to attempt to take Arenas safely into custody for his warrants for first degree murder and attempted murder. Arenas refused to come out of the room with his hands up as instructed; he was observed with his hand in his pocket holding a firearm. Deputies fired beanbag rounds at Arenas, striking him, and causing him to drop the firearm he had in his hand in his pocket. He then picked up the handgun from the floor and began moving it up to a firing position. At this point three different PCSO SWAT members fired their agency-issued firearms, striking Arenas. He died at the scene.

Detectives recovered the handgun with a round chambered.

Arenas' criminal history includes 17 previous arrests in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and 2 previous arrests in Florida, including drug possession, drug sales/delivery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, petit theft, felony shoplifting, eluding police, and burglary.

There are several ongoing investigations: two death investigations (Riviera-Vasquez and Arenas) by the PCSO Bureau of Criminal Investigations; an attempted homicide on the female victim by Arenas; an independent internal investigation by the PCSO Administrative Investigations Unit; an autopsy by the Medical Examiner; and an independent investigation and review by the State Attorney's Office.