Tampa police announced Tuesday night that they will charge a 24-year-old man with four counts of first-degree murder in connection with a series of shooting deaths that rattled the Seminole Heights neighborhood.
Police received a tip Tuesday afternoon about a man with a gun inside a McDonald's in the Ybor City neighborhood, Police Chief Brian Dugan told reporters. Officers found the suspect, Howell E. Donaldson III, and detained him; a gun was recovered at the scene, Dugan said, but it's unclear if it was the gun used in one or more of the killings.
Earlier, police said they believed one shooter was likely behind the four deaths, but did not say why they thought they were connected. The first victim, 22-year-old Benjamin Mitchell, was shot Oct. 9 while waiting for a bus, and the body of the fourth victim, Ronald Felton, 60, was found Nov. 14 close to a memorial set up to honor the first three victims.