TAMPA, Fla. — The Hillsborough State Attorney's office has announced a major expansion of its gun violence unit during a press conference on Monday.
The restructuring increases the number of investigators and prosecutors who will now focus exclusively on gun related crime.
“The pain is unbearable. I want my son back,” said Brucie Boonstoppel, attending the news conference.
The Boonstoppel family says they know all too well about the impact of gun violence.
20-year-old Harrison Boonstoppel was killed when gunfire erupted October 29 in Ybor City.
The family hopes this expansion of the state attorney’s office gun violence unit will spare others their pain.
“It pleases us, to be honest, and we thank the state attorney’s office that this is going to be very seriously taken,” said Karl Boonstoppel, Harrison’s father.
Hillsborough State Attorney Susie Lopez said the expansion was overdue.
15 years ago, when the unit was first formed, there was one prosecutor dedicated to cases involving gun violence. A few years later, it increased to two. Now, there will be five.
“This is all that they do,” Lopez said. “There will not be one, there will not be two, but five experienced prosecutors whose responsibility will be prosecuting, gun violence cases.”
The idea is to bring the rate of gun related crimes down by concentrating specifically on non-fatal cases.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office says it did something similar three years ago when it formed what they call the GRIT squad.
Now, arrests are made in more than 70% of such cases, they say.
“Previously, before we had the GRIT team, our rates were about 9 to 10 to 12%,” said HCSO Chief Joseph Maurer.
“From this moment forward,” Lopez said. “If you use a gun to commit a crime in Hillsborough County, you will be held accountable.”
The Hillsborough State Attorney's office says the expansion will also allow the gun violence unit to work more collaboratively with local law enforcement agencies, focusing on what they call "serial trigger pullers" who victimize our community.
The unit will also be working with youth offender programs like “Safe and Sound Hillsborough,” which works with some of the highest at-risk young offenders, hoping to intervene before they commit increasingly serious gun crimes.