A 37-year-old Melbourne man remains in custody without bond after a grand jury indicted him for the first-degree murder of a 2-year-old girl and the attempted murder of her grandparents in 2025.
Clifford Long, known by the nickname “Goof,” is accused of entering a home on the night of August 29 and opening fire on a multigenerational family.
Melbourne police arrived at the scene around 10:40 p.m. to find a 48-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man suffering from serious gunshot wounds. Inside a bedroom, officers discovered 2-year-old Bles’Syn Lightner, who had been shot in the forehead.
Paramedics pronounced the child dead at the scene, just four days after her second birthday. While six other family members, including two children, were in the house at the time, they were not physically harmed. The toddler’s parents were away at a concert during the attack.
Though there were no signs of forced entry and the victims initially claimed they didn’t know the shooter, the injured grandfather later identified Long as the gunman.
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According to the arrest affidavit, the victim described the suspect as a tall, thin, light-skinned Black male with a head shaped “like a football,” a description investigators noted matched Long identically. The grandfather told police he witnessed Long shoot the toddler before stepping over her body to fire at the adults.
Detectives allege a potential motive surfaced when Long spoke to his brother. The affidavit states Long admitted to the killing, allegedly saying, “They wouldn’t come off that money,” which investigators believe points to a robbery or drug-related dispute. Long reportedly told his brother he did not intend to kill the child.
Long’s arrest for the homicide follows a separate violent incident a week after the shooting. He and his brother were charged with stabbing a homeless man over 30 times and using a machete to sever his finger during a drug dispute. Long has been held at the Brevard County Jail for that attack since September.
When questioned by investigators regarding the death of Bles’Syn, Long denied any involvement, claiming he was at a gas station during the shooting.
While he admitted to knowing the child’s father, he told police he didn’t know the rest of the family well. Regarding the toddler’s death, Long told officers, “To be honest with you, I didn’t shed a tear but my condolences to the family.”
He is scheduled to appear in court again on May 20.
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