The Polk County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference this afternoon, Monday, February 24, 2025, revealing that one suspect in last night’s homicide in Frostproof has been arrested.
Sheriff Grady Judd says 15-year-old Tyjhae Allen will be charged with 1st degree murder, tampering with evidence, and attempted robbery.
Since this afternoon’s press conference, PCSO has advised the media that they have also apprehended and arrested the second suspect, a 16-year-old, whose name has not yet been released. The circumstances around the 16-year-old’s arrest have not been made public at the time of publication.
There were two known suspects involved in the murder of a 22-year-old in Frostproof on Sunday evening February 23, 2025.
The press conference began with the following statement from Sheriff Judd:
“We had a very tragic event that shouldn’t have happened yesterday afternoon at about 5 PM in Frostproof, Florida. A 22-year-old kid was shot and killed. Now, I want to preface this by saying this 22-year-old kid was selling marijuana. That’s right, I hear it over and over; ‘Oh, it’s just a low-level, non-violent crime, marijuana.’ Well, tell our victim’s mother that, who lost her 22-year-old child yesterday.
“And here’s what occurred:
“As we know now, a 15- and a 16-year old suspect went on an app and ordered up some marijuana. When our victim arrived at about 5:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon in this Frostproof neighborhood, as he’s pulling down the road, he’s stopped by a 15- and a 16-year-old. They have some conversation for, as it’s described to us, for 2 or 3 minutes, when one of our suspects pulls out a firearm and begins to shoot our 22-year-old victim, who then tries to return fire.
“His car drifts down about a half a block where it runs into the edge of the road and stops and that’s where we find our 22-year-old, with a clutched…with marijuana in his hand; a baggie of marijuana in his hand, and he’s deceased.
“Tyjhae Allen is 15 years of age. He’s one of the two suspects. He’s in custody. This occurred in his neighborhood; and in fact, he stopped our drug-selling victim in front of his house.”
Sheriff Judd states in the press conference that the suspects did not have any money to purchase marijuana at the time of the confrontation.
At 3:30 this afternoon, PCSO advised that both suspects were in custody, and that more information about the second suspect would be released at a later time.
Sheriff Judd says his office will request that the state attorney’s office try them both as adults.
As for the victim, Sheriff Judd says that, even at 22, he was still a “kid.”
“He shouldn’t have been selling dope, but he certainly shouldn’t have died because he was. And he did. He was murdered. In the street. In this nice quiet neighborhood.”
