Kanasha Issac was sixteen years old and lived in Immokalee, Florida, an agricultural community in Collier County, approximately forty miles southeast of Fort Myers. She was described as a social butterfly, full of life and energy, who had a very close relationship with her family.
On Saturday, February 23rd, 2013, Kanasha was in Fort Myers, where she visited Miller’s Ale House at 4400 Kernel Circle. Kanasha had left the restaurant and entered a car with her boyfriend. Witnesses subsequently described another vehicle pulling alongside theirs and positioning itself in a way that blocked them from leaving the parking space.
The encounter escalated almost immediately. According to the witnesses’ account relayed by investigators, the passenger-side window of the approaching vehicle was lowered, revealing a man armed with a handgun. The gunman fired toward the occupied car, striking Kanasha in the face.
After the shooting, Kanasha was transported to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers. The people who brought her to the hospital provided investigators with an account of the confrontation in the restaurant parking lot.
Kanasha’s injuries were catastrophic. Early reporting stated that doctors determined she was brain-dead and that she remained on life support for organ donation. She was subsequently removed from life support.
Her death was particularly devastating because it came during a period when her school community was already grieving. Two other students, Coby Deleon and Natalia Trejo, had died in a murder-suicide in December 2012.
In the days following the shooting, Fort Myers police identified a suspect. Contemporary reporting named Henry Brunson, a twenty-four-year-old Fort Myers man, as the individual police believed was responsible for shooting Kanasha.
According to the initial report, witnesses who transported Kanasha to the hospital told investigators that Brunson had been armed with a handgun when the other vehicle pulled alongside theirs. Police subsequently arrested Brunson in connection with the shooting.
However, an eyewitness gave conflicting statements, and there was no forensic evidence linking Brunson to the shooting. The case ultimately could not move forward, and Brunson was released in early July of 2013 with no charges filed.
The known circumstances of Kanasha’s shooting raise several questions that have never received a clearly documented public answer. The sequence of events suggests a deliberate confrontation. However, it does not establish whether someone inside the vehicle was specifically targeted, whether anyone in the car recognized the shooter, or whether there been an argument or earlier encounter.
There is also little verified information concerning the physical evidence recovered during the investigation. The available accounts do not clarify whether investigators recovered the weapon, obtained surveillance footage from the restaurant or nearby businesses, or developed forensic evidence that independently identified the killer.
In 2015, a civil action was filed against Miller’s Ale House in Lee County, Florida. The case was categorized as a negligent-security action. The available court listing identifies the civil case as disposed, but the records do not establish whether it ended through a settlement, dismissal, or another resolution.
On October 6th, 2026, Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers published a new appeal concerning Kanasha’s murder, but as of this writing, there have been no new developments.
