The early morning fight occurred in an area with several bars and clubs that was once the center of Tampa’s cigar industry. In more recent years, the area has been known for its lively nightlife, and Tampa police spokeswoman Jonee Lewis said “hundreds” of people were on the streets at the time of Sunday’s shootings because numerous nightspots had just closed.
Police had not released the names of those killed, but Emmitt Wilson said his 14-year-old son, Elijah, was one of the fatalities. Wilson came to the scene Sunday after getting a call that his son was a victim.
“It’s madness to me. I don’t even feel like I’m here right now,” Wilson said. “I hope the investigators do their job.”
“We’ve got to say, as a country, that enough is enough,” said Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, a former city police chief.
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More than 50 officers were in the area, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said on social media, but the incident quickly turned into “a senseless loss of life by those choosing to settle a dispute with firearms.”
Castor stressed at an afternoon news conference that Tampa was “one of the safest cities of its size in the nation,” but that gun law changes were necessary to prevent more incidents like this.
“We cannot come back to the microphones day after day and give our sincere condolences to the victims of gun violence,” she said. “We as a country have to make decisions. A vast majority of Americans support reasonable firearm solutions and support reasonable regulations.”
Tyrell Phillips, 22, who was arrested on a second-degree murder charge, will have a pre-trial detention hearing Thursday.
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