Trucker shot at Alligator Alley recreation area in Collier had stopped to sleep
Alexi C. Cardona
A truck driver who stopped to sleep at a recreation area along the Alligator Alley stretch of Interstate 75 in Collier County last week told authorities he was awakened when two people pulled him from the truck and started beating him.
Luis Ruiz, of Pembroke Pines, pulled off the highway at mile marker 70 because he felt sleepy and dizzy, according to a 911 call released Monday by the Collier County Sheriff's Office.
He called 911 around 5:30 a.m. Thursday and told a dispatcher two people dragged him from the box truck, beat him and shot him. The Sheriff's Office last week said the man was shot following an attempted robbery.
Ruiz sounded like he was in such pain and distress, he could barely tell a dispatcher what happened to him and where he was, the report says.
More:Collier Sheriff's Office: Person shot in robbery attempt at I-75 rest area
Reached by phone Monday, Ruiz said he was still in pain and declined to talk further.
The timeline of how the attack unfolded is unclear from the 911 call. The man said at one point he ended up in the truck freezer.
When deputies and Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrived, Ruiz was lying on the ground with a gunshot wound in his right shoulder. A Sheriff's Office incident report states Ruiz had no exit wound, and the bullet may have lodged in his chest.
He had difficulty breathing and could not talk to investigators much because of the pain, the report states.
He was flown to Lee Memorial Hospital as a trauma patient.
Investigators talked to two men at the scene. Both were initially considered suspects but were cleared as witnesses.
Trower Boyd, of East Naples, said he was heading back to Collier County from the east coast late on Aug. 8, and stopped at the recreation area when he became sleepy. The facility has backcountry access but no restrooms.
"I stopped at the rest area around midnight, and I woke up a suspect in a shooting," Boyd said in a phone interview.
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He woke up around 6 a.m. to the sight of deputies surrounding his car.
"They put me in handcuffs and said they just had to make sure I wasn't involved," Boyd said.
Boyd was at the scene for about two hours giving statements to detectives and having his hands tested for gunshot residue, he said.
He did not see any suspects and didn't hear the gunshot, he said, but he saw Ruiz lying on the ground and saw when a helicopter landed on the interstate to take him to a hospital.
Investigators are still searching for the attackers. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Sheriff's Office nonemergency line at 239-252-9300.