Tampa cops try to ease fears during killer search
TAMPA — Police escorted students to school bus stops Monday as they blanketed the Southeast Seminole Heights neighborhood in Tampa after three shooting deaths in 11 days attributed to a serial killer.
The Tampa Police Department gave officers a list of neighborhood bus stops and pickup times and “saturated the area” to keep watch over students, said department spokesman Steve Hegarty.
Police took the same approach Sunday night as they provided an escort during a neighborhood candlelight vigil in memory of shooting victims Anthony Naiboa, 20; Benjamin Edward Mitchell, 22; and Monica Caridad
Hoffa, 32.
All three shooting victims were bus riders, police and acquaintances said. One was found dead at a Route 9 bus stop, and another had missed a bus and was walking when he was shot, both along North 15th Street, police said.
Still, interim Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan repeated Monday that police are encouraging residents of the neighborhood not to hole up in their homes.
“We want people outside; this is not a bad neighborhood,” Dugan said in an interview on 970-WFLA radio. “We need people outside telling us what’s going on.”
But neighborhood resident Wayne Capaz, 61, stopped taking his nightly walks after the first shooting. He stays inside at night now, opening a door when he smokes a cigarette.
“I have a fan that blows the smoke away from me,” he said. “This is crazy. I’ve lived here my whole life, and nothing like this has freaking happened.”
Dugan said during a news conference Friday that it was accurate to call the killings the work of a serial killer, but he has declined to say whether the same weapon was used and said Monday morning that investigators aren’t sure there is one shooter.
Mitchell was found Oct. 9 at the bus stop on North 15th and East Frierson Avenue, Hoffa was found Oct. 14 in a vacant lot about six blocks west, and Naiboa’s body was found Thursday night at North 15th and Conover streets, 200 yards south of the bus stop.
Tampa City Council member Frank Reddick said he has heard from frightened constituents.
“They’re afraid to be out after dark because the person is still on the loose,” he said. “They appreciate the increase in law enforcement. Most of them are just frightened and don’t know what to do.”
Families of Middleton High School students received a message from their principal, Kim Moore, telling them about stepped-up patrols in the area.
“We are encouraging you to remind your children not to walk alone and to always be aware of their surroundings,” he said.
Stan Lasater, president of the Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association, said residents have vowed to stay put and not be run out of their homes.
But, he acknowledged, routines have changed, and people are eager to learn of an arrest.
“Everyone realizes that this is a sick person who is having fun, or whatever it is,” he said. “We’re just telling everyone to exercise common sense. Go out with more than one person. Be careful.”
There are people in the neighborhood who think they know what happened, even who the killer is. There are rampant and specific rumors.
“It’s a feud,” insisted Jahquez Brown, 18, part of the group that was at Giddens Park.
E. McCardy, 29, was convinced that “it’s someone who lives over here.”
Capaz imagined an elaborate scenario.
“It’s someone who just moved here and maybe lives with his grandmother,” he said. “Or maybe it’s somebody who just snapped.”
Kareem Robinson, visiting the neighborhood with his girlfriend, was convinced “it’s children killing children.”
Ron McKenzie, 56, and passing through for gas, said, “It’s kind of crazy that in Florida, everybody has the right to buy a gun.”
Carrie Wells, a 72-year-old security guard who was having lunch at Wendy’s, blamed a breakdown of morals. “It's because they took prayer out of the schools and don’t let teachers punish the kids,” she said.