I'm thinking drug deal gone bad. Any other theories out there? Curious that the police aren't releasing information on the victim.
Darkness Punctuated By Shots, Then Death
By SEAN LENGELL slengell@tampatrib.com
Published: Jul 28, 2003
TAMPA - He doesn't know who the man was. Or where he came from.
He couldn't even guess his age, so much blood covered the man's agonized face.
And so Sunday morning, in the predawn hours, beneath a moonless sky, Lock Clark found himself tending a dying stranger.
``I was saying, `Stay with us,' '' Clark said. ``My wife just cried.''
Hours later, blood still stained the road and smeared the driveway of the quiet Seminole Heights street, a half- block from the neighborhood Little League baseball field.
Tire tracks gouged the grassy shoulder where the man died.
If authorities know who he is, they aren't saying. As of late Sunday, the Tampa Police Department had not released his identity or announced an arrest.
They are treating the death as a homicide, said police spokesman Joe Durkin.
Clark, 35, said he was relaxing in bed watching the TV show ``Cops'' shortly before 5 a.m. when he heard what sounded like quarter-sticks of dynamite exploding outside.
Two shots. There could have been more, drowned out by the television show, he said.
A neighbor told the Tribune he heard six.
The neighbor stayed inside his house. Clark ran outside to investigate.
Unfolding before him was a scenario detailed in a police report.
A bloodied man, shot several times, was slumped in the street along the 1300 block of East Sligh Avenue.
As the man struggled to his feet and limped to the lawn, a car racing west on Sligh drove up on the grass and slammed into him, dragging him several feet. Then it sped off.
``It was intentional. (The man) was too far off the road to be an accident,'' Clark said. ``They drilled him.''
The man died a couple of minutes later as Clark and his wife comforted him, Clark said.
Clark, who sells and installs tires for a living, didn't recognize the car or see how many people occupied it.
His attention was riveted on the horrifying scene before him.
Police found a Cadillac hood emblem at the scene.
Sunday night, police were searching for a white or cream-colored Cadillac with blood on the driver's door and undercarriage.
Police haven't said whether the shots came from the car or elsewhere.
Clark has found his street to be quiet and safe in the four years he has lived there.
``I ain't seen nothing like this in my life before, except on TV,'' he said.
