Mitch Perry
On Thursday, the Tampa Police Department released a new video from the night of the first shooting in Seminole Heights. Law enforcement hopes releasing the video will help identify the person interim Police Chief Brian Dugan now calls a “person of interest.”
At one point, the video shows the person running.
“In my opinion, it gives us more than enough information … somebody ought to be able to identify this person,” Dugan said at a press conference Thursday afternoon at the TPD headquarters downtown.
Over the past 17 days, three people have been killed in Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood; police indicate they are not close to identifying the killer.
Benjamin Mitchell, 22, was slain Monday, October 9, while waiting at a HART bus stop. Four days later, 32-year-old Monica Huffa was found dead in a vacant lot.
Last Thursday, Anthony Naiboa, 20, was shot to death at a bus stop approximately a block away from where Mitchell died.
TPD initially released a video of a person walking in the area before the first murder happened. The second video released Thursday shows the same person running from the area where the first murder took place.
After police announced at the end of last week that the three murders were related, several media reports featured criminologists speculating on the identity of the murderer.
Dugan warned the public to ignore such reports.
“They’re going to create a lot of speculation that leads to absolutely nothing,” he said dismissively.
At a town hall meeting earlier this week, Dugan acknowledged that his department couldn’t determine the race or the gender of the assailant, or even if there is more than one killer involved.
Crime analysts “look at odds,” he said. “This isn’t Vegas; this is a homicide investigation. We need names, not speculation.”
Dugan has come up with four different reasons this “person of interest” could be running as seen in the video. He or she could have been late for dinner, exercising or heard gunshots.
They could also be the murderer.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn blasted the “no snitch” culture, saying that if the person in the video knows something about Benjamin Mitchell’s murder, they must come forward now.
“All you’re doing is protecting the killer,” he said. “So you decide on what side you’re on. You’re on the side of good, or you’re on the side of evil.”
