Michael Rice is charged with First Degree Murder in shooting death of man at hotel tiki bar

1:00 PM, May 29, 2012   |    comments
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Osprey, Florida -- A customer at a tiki bar at the Bentley's Hotel watched in horror as a man shot another man in the head, took a drink from behind the bar and walked out.

A patron at the bar told Sarasota deputies that around 2:36 p.m. Saturday Michael Rice, 23, was at the tiki bar in the pool area when he pulled out a gun and told Philippe Nahon to sit down. When Nahon refused, Rice shot him in the head.

The witness said Rice then walked around the pool area and returned to the bar with the gun in his hand.

Detectives say video surveillance shows Rice with the gun, walking through the bar area and taking a drink from the liquor bottle stock. He is then seen leaving the back of the bar area and putting the gun on a table.

Responding deputies found Rice at the front of the hotel and arrested him without incident.

Rice was charged with first degree murder. Investigators are still trying to determine a motive for the shooting.