A card game on a quiet stretch of Bethune Avenue in Winter Garden ended with a man shot dead on the ground outside a home late Tuesday night. Police say 49-year-old Shariff Simmons was pronounced dead at the scene near 778 Bethune Avenue after the shooting, which happened around 11:25 p.m., and as of Thursday, no arrests have been made.
According to FOX 35 Orlando, Simmons had been playing cards before the shooting, and officers found him on the ground outside the home when they arrived. The Winter Garden Police Department, which provided the information on the case, said detectives are still gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses in hopes of piecing together what happened in the moments before the gunfire. On Thursday, WFTV Channel 9 reported that investigators issued a public call for anyone present during or after the card game to come forward, according to a WFTV post.
What Investigators Still Don't Know
Neither the motive for the shooting nor the identity of a suspect has been made public, leaving open the central question of who fired the shots and why. The card game itself has drawn scrutiny in the context of Florida law: under Florida Statute 849.085, home card games only qualify as legal “penny-ante” games exempt from gambling prohibitions if single-hand winnings stay under $10 and no host collects an admission fee or commission, per the Florida Senate. Games that exceed those payout limits or charge entry fees run afoul of Florida Statute 849.08, though nothing in the case so far indicates whether that statute is relevant to what happened on Bethune Avenue.
Should a suspect eventually be identified and charged, the stakes would be severe. Florida Statute 782.04 classifies second-degree murder as a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison, while first-degree murder is a capital felony carrying mandatory life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty, according to the Florida Senate. Any such charges would ultimately be filed in Orange County court, though prosecutors would need to establish premeditation or underlying felony circumstances to pursue the more serious count.
A Neighborhood in the Middle of Revitalization
Bethune Avenue sits in East Winter Garden, a historic neighborhood where the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency have spent years on revitalization efforts, including affordable housing partnerships, according to City of Winter Garden meeting minutes. The CRA board oversees infrastructure, housing, and public safety planning across that part of the city, making a homicide investigation on one of its residential blocks a particularly sensitive matter for ongoing neighborhood improvement plans.
The Winter Garden Police Department, led by Chief Steve Graham since 2018, patrols a 17-square-mile city with 85 sworn officers and 30 civilian staff, per the Winter Garden Police Department. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data show the city recorded 181 violent crime index offenses in 2020, including two homicides and 139 aggravated assaults, among a population of roughly 46,750 residents.
Winter Garden's Recent String of Violence
Tuesday's shooting adds to a run of gun violence that has rattled Winter Garden neighborhoods in recent years. Hoodline previously reported that law enforcement swarmed and shut down Partlow Drive in June for hours as crime-scene teams processed a pre-dawn residential incident. In June 2025, a separate gunfire incident in a Winter Garden neighborhood left one man dead and another injured, with investigators facing witness cooperation hurdles similar to those now shaping the Bethune Avenue inquiry.
That pattern of hesitant witnesses is part of why authorities are leaning on anonymous tip programs this time around. Central Florida Crimeline is offering rewards of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case, reachable at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477). Winter Garden police also run the tip411 mobile app and web platform, which routes encrypted messages directly to detectives without recording phone numbers or IP addresses, alongside the department's non-emergency line at 407-656-3636, according to the City of Winter Garden. For now, the shooting that ended a card night on Bethune Avenue remains unsolved, with detectives asking anyone who was there to speak up.
