Gun links four Tampa slayings, arrest made
‘We had a community that was on edge’
TAMPA, FLA. • A recent college graduate who was charged in four slayings that terrorized a Tampa neighbourhood over the past 51 days used the same gun in all of the shootings and targeted people near bus stops with “no apparent motive,” a police chief said Wednesday.
The crack in the case came Tuesday when Howell Emanuel Donaldson, 24, brought a bag with a loaded handgun in it to his job at a McDonald’s and asked a co-worker to hold it while he went across the street, authorities said. Restaurant workers thought that was odd and when Donaldson left, they reported the gun to a police officer who was doing paperwork there, setting off an investigation that linked Donaldson to the shootings. Aside from matching shell casings at the shootings, authorities said location data from Donaldson’s cellphone put him at the scene of at least three of the killings.
“The gun is what we needed,” Police Chief Brian Dugan said at a news conference surrounded by family members of the victims.
The arrest overnight brought relief to an anxious community worried about a serial killer. The first shooting happened Oct. 9, followed by two more shooting deaths. By Halloween, the fear was so great that police escorted children while trick-or-treating. The fourth killing happened earlier this month.
“We had a community that was on edge,” Mayor Bob Buckhorn said. “Today the light shines. The darkness is over. This community begins the healing process.”
Donaldson did not live in the Seminole Heights neighbourhood where the shootings occurred and told investigators he was unfamiliar with it. Arrest records don’t list an attorney and the police chief said he didn’t know if he had a lawyer yet. He’s scheduled for a first appearance hearing on Thursday.
Donaldson bought the gun and a 20-round box of bullets from Shooter’s World in Tampa on Oct. 3. He picked it up after the fourday waiting period and the first killing happened two days after that.
Detective Austin Hill wrote in a police report that Donaldson told investigators “no one, except for himself had control of the Glock firearm since his purchase.”