Gunman shoots, kills man at bar, leads police on chase, kills himself following crash

MELBOURNE, Fla. — Police say a gunman who shot and killed a man at a Florida bar is dead after leading police on a chase in Georgia before killing himself.

The shooting happened outside Mugs Pub in Melbourne, Florida later Sunday night.

Investigators said Michael Smith, 42, shot and killed Wesley Lopes, 39, in the bar’s parking lot and then took off.

Our sister-station WFTV reported that it wasn’t until about 2:45 a.m. Tuesday that a Florida Department of Agriculture officer spotted a car that had been reported stolen that was driving along Interstate 95 just north of Jacksonville.

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As police tried to pull the driver over, they took off, leading officers on a chase into Georgia. As they neared the state line, officers got a hold of the Camden County Sheriff’s Office about the chase and deputies took over once the car got into the county.

“A deputy performed a pursuit intervention technique near mile marker 10, and the stolen car went off the road and crashed into a wooded area,” the Melbourne Police Department said in a news release.

When deputies got close to the car they realized the driver, identified as Smith, was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The case remains under investigation by the Georgia State Patrol and the Melbourne Police Department.

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