Police Catch Florida Serial Killer, Charged With 4 Murders
In this day and age, it is hard to identify a serial killer when he is in the midst of his killing spree.
Florida police announced that they arrested a suspect who has been terrorizing Tampa for months.
After a nearly two-month search, Tampa police arrested and charged a 24-year-old man with four counts of murder in connection to a series of fatal shootings that had terrified residents in the city's Seminole Heights neighborhood.Howell Donaldson III was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon at a nearby McDonald's after police recovered a gun that they said had been used in the four killings.
Donaldson admitted that he owned the gun but did not admit to the killings, Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said, but police are convinced that they finally caught the person responsible.
"We've had other guns, but we knew this was the one," Dugan said. "Now the work begins to shore up the case and get a full prosecution."
The arrest came 51 days after the first of four shootings in Seminole Heights, each of which targeted citizens doing ordinary things, like waiting at a bus stop or crossing the street. The four seemingly unconnected victims were each killed -- but not robbed -- while walking alone at night within a half-mile area, police said, leading to fears of a serial killer on the loose.
Police said they didn't yet know the motive for the killings or why the Seminole Heights neighborhood was chosen.
"He was friendly and nice to the cops, but he didn't give us anything. He didn't tell us why he was doing it, or anything like that," Dugan said. -(Madison Park, Keith Allen, Eric Levenson, CNN)
Donaldson is a recent graduate from St. John's University in New York. Shocking to see what he has become if proven guilty.