Suspect allegedly used same gun in 4 slayings
TAMPA, Fla. — A recent college graduate charged in four slayings that terrorized a Tampa neighborhood 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 coworker 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 cell phone 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 graduated from St. John’s University in New York in January 2017, according to school spokesman Brian Browne. He was a walkon for the men’s basketball team during the 2011-12 season, but never played in a game, Browne said.
After graduating, he worked in customer support at the Ultimate Medical Academy, a school that trains workers for health care jobs. He started there Feb. 13 and worked for about three months before he was fired for absenteeism. The academy said he passed a background check before he was hired.
He was a crew chief at the McDonald’s when he was arrested. The tip that led police to him came from one of his co-workers at an Ybor City neighborhood’s McDonalds.
Donaldson asked an employee at the restaurant to hold a bag with a .40-caliber gun while he went to a nearby business to get a payday loan, according to an arrest report.
The employee told her manager about the gun and the manager alerted a Tampa police officer at a table in the restaurant.
When Donaldson returned to the McDonald’s, police were waiting.
Residents and police had been on edge since Oct. 9, when 22-year-old Benjamin Mitchell was shot to death.
On Oct. 11, 32-year-old Monica Hoffa, was slain. And on Oct. 19, Anthony Naiboa, 20, was killed after taking the wrong bus home from his new job. On Nov. 14, 60-yearold Ronald Felton was killed.
All of the October victims were either getting on or off a city bus, or were at a bus stop when they were shot, police said.