Second arrest made in Halloween weekend shooting in Tampa that killed 2, injured 16 others
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A second person was arrested Thursday in a Tampa, Florida, mass shooting that erupted during Halloween festivities, leaving two dead and 16 injured, police said.
A 14-year-old boy was arrested in Palm Beach County and was waiting to be transported back to Tampa, police said in a news release. He faces felony charges of being a minor in possession of a firearm while wearing a mask and carrying a concealed firearm.
“There is no reasonable explanation for a 14-year-old to be in possession of a firearm,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement.
An argument between two groups led to the shooting in the early morning hours of Oct. 29 in Tampa’s Ybor City area, police said. Later that day, detectives arrested Tyrell Stephen Phillips, 22, in connection with the shooting. He was charged with second-degree murder with a firearm.
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 have said hundreds of people were on the streets at the time of the shootings because numerous nightspots had just closed.
Video posted online shows people, many in Halloween costumes, drinking and talking on the street when about a dozen shots ring out, followed seconds later by about eight more. A stampede ensued, with some people toppling over metal tables and taking cover behind them. Video from the aftermath shows police officers treating several people lying wounded on the ground.
Authorities have not released the names of the two people who were killed, but family members have identified them as 14-year-old Elijah Wilson and 20-year-old bystander Harrison Boonstoppel.
Detectives are still trying to identify additional persons of interest who appear in a video posted to the Tampa police department’s YouTube page.