Anthony Naiboa, 20, had reportedly taken the wrong bus on his way home from work and was en route to another bus stop along 15th Street when he was gunned down, interim Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said Friday.
Police believe that there is a connection between Naiboa's death and those of two others killed within blocks of Thursday's shooting — but they're baffled as to who would commit these acts and why.
"This is very frustrating, and I go from frustration to anger on these unsolved homicides. And now we have someone who is terrorizing this neighborhood. It's just difficult to see this happen," he said.
Dugan said Naiboa was the oldest of five children who had last year graduated from Middleton High School.
"He was in the prime of his life and it's been taken instantly," he said.
Though police are as yet unsure of a motive, Dugan said the proximity and timing of Naiboa's death and two others make it clear that the incidents are connected. They're just not sure how.
"We still have no leads, we have no motive," he said.
The body of Benjamin Mitchell, a 22-year-old student at Hillsborough Community College, was found Oct 9 near a bus stop along 15th Street.
Thirty-two-year-old Monica Hoffa's body was found Friday, Oct. 13 at the 1000 block of East New Orleans Avenue, police said, a day or two after she was killed.
Dugan said Thursday's killing took place just a few hundred yards south of where Mitchell was murdered.
Police had been patrolling nearby; they were close enough to hear the shots. By the time they reached the site, the killer had fled and Naiboa had already died.
Residents of the immediate area — the southeastern portion of Seminole Heights are rattled, and some have taken to social media to express their fears. But Dugan urged locals not to give into their fears, but to instead stand outside en masse and to turn on outside lighting.
"We're not going to be held hostage by whoever's doing this," Dugan said. "We need everyone to come out of their homes at night, turn on their porch lights and just not tolerate this type of terrorism in the neighborhood. We have to get people outside."
This article appears in Oct 19-26, 2017.
