TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Shootings Ring In Holidays

ADVERTISEMENT

By GEORGE H. NEWMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2008

PLANT CITY - Four victims of gunfire were recovering from wounds from three separate shootings, including a double shooting on Christmas morning, police officials said.

The shootings were unrelated, Plant City police said.

In the first shooting, at 11:50 p.m. Dec. 22, a 17-year-old was shot in the chest. He was transported to Lakeland Regional Hospital with injuries that were not life threatening. The victim was shot at Spooner and Mobley streets, police spokesman Sgt. Jim Shultz said.

The victim and a witness said five males riding in a 2001 to 2004 red Ford F-150 pickup were involved in the shooting, Shultz said. "It appears the shooting is gang related. One of the suspects, the shooter, was driving the truck. A reference was made about colors being displayed by the victim and then he was shot."

Adrian Mata, 19, a passenger in the vehicle, was arrested Dec. 26 on charges of being an accessory after the fact to attempted felony murder and being an accessory after the fact to aggravated child abuse, police said. Mata, of 1612 Cedar Drive, Plant City, was being held last week without bail at Orient Road Jail. He was also being held on a Polk County warrant that included a robbery charge, jail records show.

The shooter has not been arrested.

The victim, who lives in Miami, was visiting friends in Tampa, and came to Plant City to see relatives, Shultz said.

"The victim has no relation to gangs in Hillsborough County," Shultz said. "But, like a lot of things that go on in gang turf wars, reality as we know it doesn't matter."

The following day, at about 6:13 p.m., police responded to a report of shots fired in the 900 block of Alabama Street.

The 18-year-old victim was talking with a friend when they were approached by a man in his early 20s, Shultz said. "The suspect tore a chain off the victim's neck and then shot him twice with a small-caliber black handgun," he said.

The victim was hit in the right upper leg and the left lower calf, Shultz said. He was taken to South Florida Baptist Hospital.

The third shooting took place at 2:45 a.m. Christmas, in the west 3100 block of State Road 574 where two people were shot in the chest with a small-caliber handgun, police said.

"There was a Christmas Eve party at a business in that area that went on well past midnight," Shultz said. A 20-year-old party guest was confronted by four or five males in a car and an argument ensued, he said.

. The victim's girlfriend, also 20, a relative of one of the company employees, came outside to join the victim and witnessed part of an ongoing argument, Shultz said.

The woman yelled at the people in the white Volkswagen Passat to leave, Shultz said. A passenger got out of the backseat of the car and fired at least two shots at the man and woman with a handgun, Shultz said.

The couple were taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center. Both victims were conscious and speaking to police when they were transported to the hospital by Plant City Fire Rescue.

Anyone with information about any of the shootings should call Plant City police at (813) 757-9200.

Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451 or gnewman@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT