New Tampa residents gather to express their fears and concerns about recent violence

TAMPA — Some expressed concern for their families. Others searched for answers.

More than 150 people crowded into the New Tampa Center Monday night to hear Tampa police reports on a series of fatal shootings that had occurred in the area in recent days.

A panel of officials, including Police Chief Lee Bercaw and Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, answered questions and comments from the audience. Longtime area residents took the microphone to express their fears about what the violence could mean for their community.

Bercaw said the ongoing investigation into the shootings has led investigators to believe the crimes were not random and that the two cases are not related. He said each case involves people who know each other and some of them are not from the Tampa Bay area.

Officials called the meeting after a spate of violence erupted on June 17, when a man later identified as 24-year-old Kyle Prisco was shot and killed on Regents Park Drive, east of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. No arrests were made.

On Friday, two people were found shot to death on New Tampa Boulevard. No arrests were made in this case either.

Also on Friday, the decomposing body of a man was found on Dona Michelle Drive near New Tampa Nature Park. Bercaw said Monday night that police had made an arrest in the case, but did not elaborate. After the meeting, police issued a news release announcing the arrest of 29-year-old Andre Aris on first-degree murder with a firearm and other charges. Aris is accused of killing the man and stealing his car.

Early Sunday morning, Jacksonville rapper Charles Jones, who performs under the stage name Julio Foolio, was among four people shot in a hotel parking lot at 11606 N McKinley Drive, south of the University of South Florida campus. Jones died of his injuries. The other three people are expected to survive, police said.

Officials said Monday that investigators believe those involved were from the Jacksonville area.

Despite the recent violence, Assistant Police Chief Calvin Johnson said New Tampa is safe. Criminals from other cities sometimes choose “good” neighborhoods to secretly commit interpersonal violence because they believe police won’t be looking for them in the area — but that won’t happen here, said Johnson, the department’s public information director.

“You’ll understand that we have a great police force,” Johnson said. “We take what’s happening very seriously. We try to put people in jail.”

Johnson said there have been about seven gun-related homicides in the area in the past month, and last week was an anomaly, he said.

Some residents expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of police presence in the area following the shootings. Bercaw said the department is in the process of hiring 30 new officers using grant money, but in the meantime they are overstretched across the city.

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New Tampa resident Darnell Eason is a retired New York City police officer and the response so far has seemed lackluster, he said.

“You never see them, even off duty,” Eason said. “They’re just not there, which is a problem for me. I’m totally focused on law enforcement and if I don’t see them, that’s a problem.”

Several elected officials attended the meeting, including U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, a Republican from Hillsborough, State Senator Jay Collins, a Republican from Tampa, and State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Democrat from Tampa.

Former Hillsborough District Attorney Andrew Warren, who is running this year to regain his post after Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended him, was also in the audience and said he was impressed by the performance of New Tampa residents.

“This is not political,” Warren said. “You have a room full of Democrats and Republicans, and all for the same reason, because we all go home on nights like this and hug our kids a little tighter.”

Bercaw urged anyone with information about the shootings to report it to police. He also said New Tampa residents should participate in their neighborhood watches to help police prevent violent crimes like last week’s.