ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG) — New details have been released following a Tuesday morning double homicide in Escambia County.
An arrest report says David Purchase and Natalie Greenough were the man and woman killed. Purchase and Greenough were found gunned down in a car off Waycross and Stonewall avenues around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons says 18-year-old Nathan Brown and a 15-year-old suspect were looking to rob the couple of drugs.
“There were a lot of indicators that things could go wrong,” Simmons said. “And unfortunately for all of us really, unfortunately for our community, something did go wrong.”
Simmons said investigators found evidence Purchase had set up a drug deal with the teenagers who eventually murdered him.
“They had set up to purchase marijuana from the individuals in the car — the victims in this case,” Simmons said. “But, they had no intention of buying the marijuana. Their intent was to rob them.
“It’s risky behavior. You’re not only buying marijuana or drugs. You’re also intending to rob them. You bring a gun and you use the gun and the result is tragic. You end up with two people killed — two relatively young people killed and two even younger people going to prison.”
Brown is being held in the Escambia County jail. The 15-year-old suspect is being held in juvenile detention. WKRG News 5 is not identifying him because he is a juvenile.
Simmons says cases like this remind the sheriff’s office of the importance of its community outreach programs.
“That’s a motivation for us to get out and do our engagement efforts, do our Blazer Academy, to do these things because there may be a chance to turn these kids from the direction they’re heading,” he said.
The state attorney’s office will determine if the 15-year-old boy will be prosecuted as an adult.
