Apparent Suicide At Area Convenience Store

    A Leesburg man was found deceased early Thursday, May 16, at the 7-11 convenience store located at the corner of SR 19 and CR 44 between Umatilla and Eustis. The man was discovered by employees of the store around 9 a.m. and had died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
   Eustis Police Department reports state an employee of the store found the man's body around 9 a.m. The man was sitting upright in a corner of a walled area that houses the store's dumpsters. Responding officers from Eustis and Lake County confirmed the man was deceased, from an apparent gunshot wound to the head.
   The victim, a white male and Leesburg resident, was found holding a black handgun with his right hand on the grips and his left on the barrel.
   It was unclear how long the man had been deceased, as an employee taking out trash just before midnight the night before had noticed a Harley Davidson motorcycle apparently driven to the scene by the victim was in the parking lot. However, that employee did not see the man. The same motorcycle remained at the scene at 5 a.m. when another employee came on shift, but the body was not discovered until the 9 a.m. time period when another garbage run was being made.
   A review of store camera footage provided to the Eustis Police Department was inconclusive in providing detailed information about the incident.
   The Medical Examiner’s Office arrived at the scene, and the incident remains under investigation by the department’s Criminal Investigation Division.