After Bryan Riley allegedly shot a father, mother and 3-month-old baby as the family huddled inside the bathroom of their Florida home on Sunday, he allegedly grabbed an 11-year-old girl and took her into the living room.
Riley became insistent, investigators say, telling the girl that he needed to find Amber, and began counting down: Three. Two. One.
Then, he shot the little girl in the thigh and stomach, investigators say.
Riley allegedly asked the girl again. When she did not give the answer he was looking for, Riley shot her again, according to authorities.
“Do you know why I killed your parents?” he allegedly asked the girl. “They’re sex traffickers.”
He then shot the girl in the legs, according to authorities, and asked again for Amber. When the girl did not tell him what he wanted to hear, “I eliminated her,” Riley allegedly told investigators.
Stunningly, the 11-year-old survived. She later told investigators that she “played dead” and “prayed.”
The girl was taken to the hospital with seven bullet wounds, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters Thursday. She remains in intensive care but was able to tell investigators what she saw Sunday when Riley allegedly broke into her home and killed her family.
Less than a week after the massacre in Lakeland, Fla., Riley’s reasons for entering the family’s home have come into sharper focus. Investigators say he went to the house on what he described as a mission from God to rescue an imaginary child from sex trafficking and ended up killing four people and gravely injuring the 11-year-old girl.
Riley, a 33-year-old former Marine who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been charged with four first-degree murder counts and other felonies and is being held at the Polk County jail without bond. A judge has appointed a public defender to represent him.
Judd on Thursday provided further details about the quadruple homicide, drawing from an interview in which, officials say, Riley confessed to the killings in detail. He also cited other witness statements that illuminated what led Riley into the family’s home early Sunday, dressed in a bulletproof vest and armed with three guns.
On Saturday evening, Riley had visited a friend near the area of North Socrum Loop Road because Riley said he wanted to help with the Hurricane Ida relief effort and needed a first-aid kit, Judd said. After Riley left his friend’s house a little after 7 p.m., he stopped to talk to 40-year-old Justice Gleason, one of the people Riley is accused of eventually killing, as Gleason mowed his front yard.
Riley allegedly explained to Gleason that God told Riley he needed to talk to a girl named Amber because she was going to kill herself. Riley allegedly said he would not leave until he spoke to Amber. But Gleason did not know what he was talking about and told Riley to leave. Riley eventually drove off angrily, Judd said.
When Riley returned home, he argued with his girlfriend about whether God was sending him messages, although he did not mention a plan to commit violence, Judd said. Riley’s girlfriend went to bed, and Riley hatched a plan to kill the family and rescue a girl, “Amber,” whom he believed was a sex trafficking victim, Riley later confessed, according to Judd.
He left his house around 1 a.m. in a black Ford F-150, according to surveillance footage, Judd said. Riley then drove back to North Socrum Loop Road to do “reconnaissance” on the family’s home “in the moonlight,” Judd said, citing an interview with Riley. The former Marine checked for entrance points in the house, positioned his car for an easy escape and slashed the tires of the family’s sedan and pickup truck. He set out glow sticks so he — or the imaginary Amber — could find their way out of the house, Judd said.
Riley then doused both the pickup truck and the sedan with gasoline and tried to set them ablaze as decoys. Only the truck caught fire, Judd said, but Riley continued with his plan and entered the mother-in-law apartment of the 3-month-old baby’s grandmother, later identified by the Associated Press as 62-year-old Catherine Delgado, and killed her, emptying an entire magazine of his weapon, Judd said. Riley searched the apartment for the imaginary girl to no avail.
Riley then entered the main house and, in one of the bedrooms, shot the family’s dog, Judd said. He moved to the bathroom, where he shot through the door and tried to open it. There was some resistance as Gleason tried to stop Riley from getting inside. Riley allegedly shot through the door again, opened it and continued to shoot Gleason, his 33-year-old girlfriend, Theresa Lanham, and their 3-month-old son.
The 11-year-old girl did not die like the others, and Riley grabbed her and took her into the living room, where Riley “tortured” the girl, Judd said, continuing to ask for the whereabouts of the imaginary Amber and shooting the preteen in various parts of her body. When Riley became unsatisfied with the girl’s answers, he tried to kill her, Judd said. But the girl survived, later telling investigators, “I played dead and I prayed,” according to Judd.
That is when law enforcement officers converged on the house and ended up in a shootout with Riley. After one deputy grazed Riley’s abdomen with a gunshot that went through Riley’s vest, Riley retreated into the baby’s nursery, where he dressed his wound and realized he was “outmanned,” Judd said. Riley took off his bulletproof vest, dropped his weapons and walked outside with his hands up.
“He was a coward, an absolute coward,” Judd said. “He looks like a man, but he’s not a man. He’s a sniveling coward.”

