Fingerprint leads to arrest of DeLand church burglar

Date Added: August 28, 2026 11:19 am

A fingerprint on a TV mount led to the identification and arrest of a suspect who broke into a DeLand church.

Last Friday, Aug. 21, deputies responded to a burglary at the DeLand Spanish SDA Church. They found pry marks on a door to the youth chapel, and a broken window. Multiple TVs were stolen from the walls, along with speakers and other items.

The VSO Latent Print Unit identified a print of value from one of the TV mounts left behind. It came back to Steven Shurr, a career offender with 10 prior burglary arrests.

Shurr is not a parishioner of the church and would have no reasonable explanation for his fingerprints on the TV mount. While Shurr lives in Lake County, detectives learned at the time of the burglary, he was staying in a house about a quarter mile from the church.

Shurr was arrested Thursday evening by the Lake County Sheriff's Office on his VSO warrant. He was released from prison in March 2025 after serving 4 years for burglary, grand theft, and failure to register as a career criminal. His criminal history includes 32 prior felony charges and 10 prior misdemeanors.