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Regena Paulette Daniels
Authorities arrested a woman Friday who admitted to shooting a Palatka man earlier this week and had been cooperating with police, documents show.
Regena Paulette Daniels, 53, of Palatka was booked into the Putnam County Jail at 11:21 a.m. on Friday and charged with first-degree homicide, the jail log shows.
Daniels is charged in the Monday shooting that left 34-year-old Tyrone Colay dead, according to the Palatka Police Department.
Officers responded to 113 E. Oak Hill Dr. in Palatka to find Colay shot in his upper right torso, according to the agency’s probable cause affidavit. First responders transported Colay to HCA Florida Putnam Hospital, where he was reportedly pronounced deceased due to the gunshot wound.
Daniels and Colay had a child together and lived together, according to the police department, but slept in different rooms in the Oak Hill home.
The incident began in the early morning hours Monday when Daniels discovered Colay had someone inside his bedroom, according to the affidavit. The name of the person inside the bedroom has been redacted from the report.
After Daniels discovered another person in Colay’s room, she said she knew what she was going to do, Sgt. Colton Lee reported after conducting interviews with witnesses.
“Tyrone responded to (Regena) that she was not going to get her gun,” Lee stated in the affidavit.
From there, Colay reportedly stepped between Daniels and the door to his room and closed the door. The person inside the room banged on the door to try to open it, documents state. The person inside Colay’s room reportedly then left the residence through Colay’s bedroom window.
Another person, whose name is also redacted, met the person in Colay’s room in the back of the residence outside, the report states, with Daniels following them.
The two unnamed people started fighting on the ground, and Daniels reportedly went back inside the home and got her gun. The two unnamed people were still in a fight when Daniels returned outside, Lee stated based on witness accounts.
One of the unnamed people told Daniels not to fire the gun at them because they were intertwined with the other person on the ground, the report states.
“(Regena) pointed the firearm at Tyrone, who was not engaged in the fight, and fired at Tyrone,” Lee stated in his report.
One of the unnamed people then broke away from the fight, ran from the home and reported hearing another gunshot from the Oak Hill residence.
A juvenile at the scene received a head wound, Capt. Matt Newcomb said Friday, but the captain said he was unsure how. He said the person who received the head wound is doing fine.
After conducting interviews, witnesses said Colay had reportedly not been involved in a fight during the time he was shot, leading to Daniels’ arrest.
“We were able to show it was not a self-defense or stand-your-ground … law,” Newcomb said.