Gun range shooting victim ID'ed

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - The Orange County Sheriff's Office has identified the victim of a shooting at a gun range on South Orange Blossom Trail. The shooting, which happened on Wednesday at Rieg's Gun Shop in Pinecastle, is believed to have been a suicide. Investigators said Valentin Pepeleas, 43, walked into the gun range located at 5512 South Orange Blossom Trail around 7 p.m.

Pepeleas, a Canadian, was said to be a regular customer at the gun range and had rented guns on previous occasions. Surveillance video shows Pepelaes fired a few practice rounds before turning the gun on himself.

Store operators said Pepleas had filled out a lengthy form before being allowed to rent the gun, which includes questions such as, "Are you suicidal?" and "Have you been convicted of any felonies?"

Sheriff's detectives said this is the second suicide at Rieg's Gun Range in the past year.

And Rieg's Gun Range is not the only Orlando-area gun range which has been the site of a suicide. In April, 44-year-old Marie Moore shot her 20-year-old son Mitchel Moore, before the turning the gun on herself, at the Shoot Straight Gun Range in Casselberry, located at 4700 S U.S. Highways 17 and 92.

Nearly three weeks after that murder-suicide, investigators with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office said that Jason McCarthy, 27, of Winter Springs, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the Shoot Straight Gun Range. He had also rented the gun from the store.

"We don't know why they are targeting gun shops to do this," said Lt. Spike Hopkins with the Orange County Sheriff's Office. "We would ask people contemplating this talk to their family, friends or ministers and try to get some help for this before they come down and do such an act."
 

FOX 35's Melissa Dipane contributed to this report