Published Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Teen Dies in Argument Over Trucks
Lakeland High student faces second-degree murder charges.

By Diane Lacey Allen
The Ledger

LAKELAND -- An argument about trucks ended tragically Sunday with one Lakeland High School student dead and a classmate in jail on a murder charge.

Brandon David Prince, a 18-year-old junior, apparently took exception to trash talk and a claim that Fords were superior. On Saturday, he confronted Allen C. Ormsbee, 18, at a parking lot at The Lakeland Center, where Ormsbee worked, according to police.

The young men argued and Prince eventually drove toward Ormsbee, who jumped on the hood of Prince's 1990 four-wheel-drive GMC Sierra pickup. When Prince turned quickly, Ormsbee fell off and his head hit the pavement, police said.

Ormsbee, a Lakeland High senior, was pronounced dead from his injuries Sunday. Prince was charged with seconddegree murder and aggravated battery with a motor vehicle. He is being held at the Polk County Jail.

"My grandson was an honor student in ROTC," Patricia Powell of Valrico said of Ormsbee. "He was a good boy. He was an allaround good kid."

David Prince of Lakeland, Prince's father, did not want to comment on the case. "We're grieving for the (Ormsbee) family right now," he said.

A family member at Ormsbee's home said Monday that the Ormsbees had no comment.

Lakeland High Principal Mark Thomas said "both were nice kids" and in the ROTC program. "We had the crisis team in today and it's a tragedy," Thomas said. "Beyond that, we really don't know that much about the details. All we tried to do today was work with the kids who had issues."

Trouble between the two had been brewing for weeks, according to police.

"The defendant, Prince, was aggravated or upset because Ormsbee had been saying some derogatory things about him," said Lt. John Thomason with the Lakeland Police Department. "It was a combination of just several things over a couple-month period. It'd been a couple months hearing people saying, `Allen (Ormsbee is) saying this, Allen saying that. I think he got fed up with it."

Ormsbee's friend, Thomas Cantrell, was working with him on Saturday at The Lakeland Center, where they set up tables and cleaned.

Cantrell, 18, said Ormsbee, who had recently gotten a 2006 Ford Ranger, had been talking to Prince's brother on the phone and Prince overheard it.

"They were just making knocks on each other's vehicle on the phone. Just the whole Ford truck vs. Chevy truck . . .," Cantrell said. "Brandon took it seriously and came down to the civic center looking for trouble and one thing led to another."

According to a police report, Prince arrived at The Lakeland Center and argued with Ormsbee.

Prince told police that Ormsbee then "grabbed him about his neck and pushed him against his vehicle, telling him that he didn't want him around his work causing problems."

After Ormsbee let go, Prince told police he got back into his truck and was backing up. Ormsbee told Prince he was "going to kick his -----, kill him and push his truck into a nearby lake."

Prince said Ormsbee started running toward his truck and Prince drove toward him as if "playing chicken." Prince said Ormsbee jumped on the hood and began striking the windshield with his fists, according to the report.

Cantrell said Ormsbee jumped on the hood to avoid getting hit.

Prince said he drove a short distance, turned quickly and accelerated so Ormsbee would fall off the hood, which he did and struck the pavement, according to the report.

Prince told police that "he knew what he did was wrong, he just wanted (Ormsbee) to stop talking about him."

Cantrell said he doesn't understand why Prince reacted the way he did.

"I don't know why he took offense. We used to knock on him all the time. We used to knock on each other all the time about it (trucks). It never got out of hand.

"Until it happened, I thought he (Prince) was our friend . . .," Cantrell said.

Diane Lacey Allen can be reached at diane.allen@theledger.com or 863-802-7514.

LINK: http://theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060418/NEWS/604180378/1039
VIA: BON

Speechless..

Igor

Damn, thats like 30 min from where I live with bad traffic.....

stupid kids!

wow

Damn.... Too bad a stupid argument had to end like that.

Something doesn't make sense...."allaround good kids" don't go saying "derogatory" things about each other or their vehicles.

Allaround good kids don't run each other down in parking lots either.....

There's always stupid shit going on around lakeland high school. It's sad.

I'm not surprised it happened. I remember hearing of kids killed every year by falling off of moving cars when I lived in Tampa.

[?|] damn stupid people [?|] Seriously this has always bothered me why people are so damn brand loyal they get into fights and huge arguments over it. I mean, they are all cars and everybody is entitled to their own opinion but this is rediculous. Someone died because they didnt like a car someone else did [???:)] explain that to the parents who just lost their son. I saw many arguments where i used to live in rural ohio, a bunch of gap toothed, tobacco chewing redneck arguing whos pile of shit is better than the others, but this tops everything. If someone doesnt like my car, i dont care, cause i do. Some people will never get it tho.

freakin hillbillies! Lets start a petition to ban Trucks all together!! Whos with me?

thats sad, im kinda speechless. i maybe loyal to some brands more than others, but im not that loyal to get into a fight.

Now this is just dumb..........

Originally posted by blkthunder
freakin hillbillies! Lets start a petition to ban Trucks all together!! Whos with me?

Not the Mr. Softee Truck[mecry]

i think ford and chevy should merge....lol...i could see the faces of all the rednecks.....they could call it frevy or chord.....lmao....its sad that it ended that way but its not surprising.[paranoid]

frankly, i AM surprised... i see people all the time wearing one article of clothing or another sporting a certain brand. but we all get along out here! people wearing different brands will walk right by each other without a second glance.

lol Igor...does this have to do something with me? [:D] Since I defend VW most of the time...(but I think I'm cool about it and don't go gunz blazing)

...but I wouldn't go THAT far...fk-it...its just a car. not worth killing someone.

You sneaky beyotch, Igor...[:D]

A sad story, but Hillbilly rednecks is right on. It's a shame it had to go that far.

Sounds like two people with some serious anger management problems... why is it the biggest asswipe in the world is always remembered as being such a "good" person after the fact? I highly doubt either one of these kids was such a pleasure to be around, but it is nevertheless a damn shame that one of them had to die over something as stupid as Ford versus GMC. What are they gonna put on the tombstone? "He defended Ford to the death?"

what is wrong with people these days, first an x-box and now this.

[shakes head]

it's called pride. [:D] in this case, too much pride.

pretty sad and very stupid i think, but not too surprising ive seen so guys go at it for the same reason at a car show, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, i hate chevy i love ford plain and simple, but this is taking the love hate thing a little too far....

It sounds like something that was funny and just got outta hand. I'm sure that kid expected the other guy to get up with a little road rash, instead he's gone.

Truly sad.