New Tampa gun violence: Residents demand answers
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Residents in New Tampa said enough is enough with the violence Monday and demanded answers from police and city leaders.
New Tampa has been in the crosshairs of gun violence recently with different shootings claiming four lives.
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From a man shot dead in broad daylight to a triple shooting, a decomposed body and a rapper killed, some are now scared to just take their kids to get ice cream.
The main message from residents at a town hall on Monday was that they want answers.
“2:30 in the afternoon, just shooting in the wild wild west,” Mona Judge said, referring to the shooting on June 17 that left a man dead off of Bruce B Downs Blvd. in broad daylight.
Then another woman took to the microphone telling city leaders and police, “hearing the news Friday of another stoplight over, another shooting that involved a car, very similar sounding story, then a couple hours later or before, I can’t keep track anymore of a decomposing body being found.”
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“Now I’m really scared,” she continued. I’m thinking, how do I keep my children protected?”
Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said, his main goal at Monday’s town hall was to work toward fighting crime with “community-focused solutions.”
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“Obviously the community is concerned about violent crime and that’s why we’re here,” he said. “To show them that we’re out here and working to solve these cases and hold people accountable.”
But some residents, like a former cop from New York, were not convinced.
“Where’s the law enforcement?” Darnell Eason questioned. “Where’s that show of force? Because when something happened up north, you flooded the area.”
Though some residents left the meeting feeling uneasy, TPD officials said they’re doing their best to stop the bloodshed.
“Immediately after these shootings, you had detectives in plain clothes going to every house, every door cam, every business to hold folks accountable,” Tampa Police Deputy Chief Calvin Johnson said.
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