Father, son killed only days apart and blocks away

A St. Petersburg man killed in an intentional hit-and-run crash early Monday is the father of a teen who was fatally shot days earlier and just a few blocks away, police said.

Officers responded to a call about 2:39 a.m. and found Taiwan James Gland Sr., 35, lying in an intersection of the Campbell Park neighborhood, according to a news release from the Police Department. Gland died at the scene.

In an update later Monday morning, police said detectives were investigating the crash as a homicide after investigators determined an unknown driver deliberately struck Gland.

Gland is the father of 18-year-old Taiwan Gland Jr., who was killed last week in a shooting outside Citrus Grove Apartments, said Yolanda Fernandez, a spokesperson for St. Petersburg police.

The apartment complex is a couple of blocks west of where Gland Sr. was found dead.

No arrests have been made in that case.

Fernandez said investigators do not know if the two incidents were related.

In several public Facebook posts over the past few days, the elder Gland mourned his son’s death.

”No words could explain my loss,” one post said, “this pain I wish on nobody it’s a pain that will leave you empty a pain that will leave you sinking in depression what I lost nobody can give me back.”

In the same post, Gland Sr. indicated he’d been there for his son through legal problems the boy had, and that the two had conversations about staying out of trouble and away from problematic people.

His last post, made Sunday, said he was “hanging in there.”