“What happened that night was an isolated incident that literally erupted in seconds,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said at the meeting.
Some, like Gaspar’s Grotto owner Eric Schiller, blame the closure of 7th Avenue for the increased violence. “Every five years, there’s blood in the street,” Schiller said. “I feel like a broken record.”
Bercaw defended the street closure, arguing that the sidewalks alone can’t handle the volume of people.
“That’s the sweet spot we’re working on,” Bercaw told Schiller. “I made it very clear that we’re going to close the streets as late as possible.”
Many who weren’t there to represent their business interests, were there to advocate for better community policing and investments in the city’s youth.
Dionne Neal, 53, moved to Ybor in 2019 with her son 25-year-old Dyante or “Tay Tay.” On Sept. 26, 2019, a fight outside Ybor’s Coyote Ugly saloon resulted in her son’s death.
“My son was standing at a pizza shop in Ybor City when somebody ran out of Coyote Ugly, hit him in his head, and he died,” Neal said at the meeting. “I’m here as a grieving mother and as a social worker.”
The court charged Neal’s assailant, Justin Jasper, with manslaughter and sentenced him to seven years in prison. Neal’s mother says she supports a possible juvenile curfew but noted that it wouldn’t have changed what happened to her son.
According to Bercaw, there were 300 disturbance calls between 8 p.m.-midnight, and 585 calls between midnight-4 a.m. so far this year in Ybor City alone.
“So clearly, that’s the witching hour,” Bercaw said at the meeting.
Gregory Morgan serves as vice chair for the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts and works as director of community relations for Amalie Motor Oil. Morgan says the FMoPA searched a long time for a location before settling on 7th Avenue two years ago.
“We’re so confident in what Darryl Shaw is building,” Morgan said at the meeting. “Making it more of a cultural center. I just think five years from now, we’re going to be so happy with it.”
Developer Darryl Shaw has a vision for a walkable Ybor City, endorsed by big-name Ybor families like historian and former Judge E.J. Salcines, who calls Shaw “Ybor’s Kingpin.” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor has praised Shaw for his plans for the district.
“Right now, people say Ybor is an entertainment district — it’s far from the only thing we want it to be known for,” Shaw said in an interview with Tampa Magazine.
Following the Halloween shooting, Shaw swiftly endorsed a proposed six-month 1 a.m. curfew for all Ybor City businesses in an opinion column published by the Times.
Neither Shaw nor the Times disclosed that Shaw had lent money to the newspaper in the past. The proposed curfew was illegal, and the community came out in droves to oppose the idea from Councilwoman Gwen Henderson, but a juvenile curfew will likely pass in the City Council in the coming weeks.
Other ordinances changing how nightlife operates in Ybor City are possible, as Bercaw has said he is looking into Orlando’s policing models after that city experienced yet another deadly shooting last year.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Ybor is in the midst of a change,” Bercaw said at Tuesday’s meeting. “You saw on the news last week about a high-speed rail station potentially coming in this vicinity. So Ybor is on the cusp of changing.”
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This article appears in Nov 16-22, 2023.