Destin's Ridge Wood Circle focus of July 4th fireworks shooting

The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office may have uncovered some clues to the shooting of Mississippi resident Stephanie Little on the Fourth of July.

An anonymous caller reported hearing a gunshot in the vicinity of Ridge Wood Circle in Destin, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Michele Nicholson.

"She said she heard something that definitely was not fireworks," Nicholson said.

Ridgewood Avenue is in a neighborhood located roughly a block north of the docks behind the Emerald Grande condominiums, where Little was wounded.

A Ridgewood Avenue homeowner also found a spent round of ammunition in his pool, Nicholson said.

The casing, found July 5, was being checked to see if its caliber matched the bullet that struck Little, Nicholson said.

Little, of Florence, Miss., was visiting the Destin area with friends over the July 4 weekend and had come out for the fireworks show, according to police reports.

Witnesses said Little, 23, suddenly clutched her shoulder and fell to the ground. Officials believe the bullet that struck her had been fired into the air, and not at the victim.

Little was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. On Saturday, a woman who identified herself as Little's mother said she was stable and due to be released "in three or four days."

If located, the person who fired the weapon that injured Little could face charges of culpable negligence or firing a weapon in public, Nicholson said after the shooting.

"It could have killed her," she said.

The Little shooting was the highlight of a busy weekend for the Sheriff's Office.

Nearly 2,000 calls for service were made between noon Thursday and 1 p.m. Sunday, according to a report released by the agency Monday.
Among those calls were 76 fireworks complaints, 69 traffic crashes, 40 noise complaints, 72 disturbances, 35 calls for suspicious activity, 27 batteries, 34 suspected DUI's, and at least 59 other alcohol-related offenses, the report said.

Anyone with additional information in the Little case should call the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office at 651-7400 or Emerald Coast Crime Stoppers at 863-TIPS.