Series of killings in Tampa, police scour neighborhood

Last month, police said that three seemingly random killings within 11 days in Seminole Heights were all linked. Benjamin Mitchell, 22, was shot and killed in front of his home October 9. Monica Hoffa, 32, was killed October 11. A city employee found her body two days afterward in a vacant parking lot half a mile from where Mitchell died.

Anthony Naiboa, an autistic 20-year-old who had just graduated from high school, became the third victim when he accidentally got on the wrong bus and ended up in the neighborhood by mistake, police said.

A 60-year-old man was shot and killed Tuesday morning in Tampa's Seminole Heights area, the fourth such death in what police say is a string of unsolved killings in that neighborhood within the past month.

Ronald Felton was shot in the back just before 5 a.m., police said. He was crossing the street to a church where he regularly helped feed the homeless, his relatives told.

Reginald Felton, his twin brother, said he urged Ronald not to go into the neighborhood at that time of day because of the other killings.

"I talked to him, but he got his own way, he still (goes) out at that time of the morning," he said.

Police and FBI agents searched the neighborhood for the suspect, but made no arrests.

"It is all in the probably 10-block, 15-block area," Mayor Bob Buckhorn told. "And so we're just going to do our good police work and hopefully get a break."

A witness provided a description of the suspect, police Chief Brian Dugan said. "When I spoke to her, she said if our officer had been five seconds earlier, he would have been able to stop it," he said.

Dugan described the suspect as a black male between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches with a thin build and a light complexion. He was wearing all black and a black baseball cap and armed with a large black pistol, police said. Police said they believe the suspect also lives in the same neighborhood as the shootings.

The killings have vexed investigators, who remain desperate for clues.

Police released grainy video last month of a person walking near the site of one of the killings.