TAMPA, Fla. — Monday night at New Tampa Community Park, it was standing room only as neighbors concerned over safety in their community packed in to hear from Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw.
The concerns come after several murders in the area within the last week. The first deadly shooting was just past city limits off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard one week ago.
Then on Friday, there was a double murder that began at apartments on New Tampa Boulevard. It was just hours after police found a decomposed body near the New Tampa Nature Park.
And early Sunday morning, Jacksonville rapper Charles Jones, known as "Julio Foolio" was killed in a shootout at a hotel across the street from the University of South Florida.
Police say despite all the violence, there is no lingering danger to the public. Chief Bercaw says these shootings are all isolated and not random.
He says the killing of rapper Julio Foolio was likely done by a rival gang out of Jacksonville and that he was over here for his birthday party.
He also says they've made an arrest for a homicide related to the decomposed body found on Friday by a Metro Self Storage next to the Nature Park.
29-year-old Andre Aris is charged with first-degree murder and grand theft of a motor vehicle.
Detectives say through their investigation, they found out the 35-year-old man killed was living in his car. They tell us they later found that car was being driven by someone else, and located it at a home where they arrested Aris.
They say Aris said he had met the man one month prior, and claimed that he gave him the car to sell one week ago. Detectives later found several of the man's ID cards in Aris's possession.
Bercaw also says they are close to making an arrest in the Friday double murder that began at the Portofino Apartments on New Tampa Boulevard.
It's all hitting too close to home for many in New Tampa rattled by a violent week.
“What if we were there when it was happening?” one resident said. “We were scared.”
Last Monday afternoon, Kyle Prisco was shot and left lying dead in broad daylight off Bruce B Downs Boulevard in New Tampa.
“It is what I think about every time my kids go to the McDonalds,” another resident said. “Can I feel safe that they're going there?”
“Where's our show of force?” wondered another resident. “After that incident, it was crickets out there.”
Chief Bercaw told the crowd that just because there's no public update doesn't mean his detectives aren't working it.
"Sometimes I’m torn with, ‘I want to tell but I also don't want to compromise the case,’” he said. “And what's most important is making the arrest and holding people accountable."
The town hall was organized by TPD and Tampa councilman Luis Viera after the 2nd shooting on Friday afternoon that spilled out from the Portofino apartments, where one was killed, to Bearss Avenue where another was found shot dead in a car.
Mona Judge came to the meeting out of concern her family may be caught in daytime crossfire. She wants solutions.
"I am a longtime resident of New Tampa, I've been here 26 years,” she says. “[Find] the root cause of our young people who's doing crime, and that root cause is a number of things. Housing, schooling, and things like that in the inner city.”
While these brazen shootings have left people unnerved in New Tampa, city-wide violent crime is down overall by about eight percent.
“What I can tell you happened immediately after these shootings is you had detectives who were in plain clothes going to every house,” TPD Deputy Chief Calvin Johnson said. Getting every door camera, every business, any video we can get to hold folks accountable.”