Seminole Heights Shootings: Bus Videos Obtained In Investigation

TAMPA, FL - Tampa police have received an “extensive amount of video” from the HART bus system as part of their investigation of three Seminole Heights homicides, a HART spokesman said Monday. The Seminole Heights neighborhood has been on edge since three shooting deaths occurred in the span of 11 days. Police say they have no motive, but authorities consider the shootings to be related.

All three shooting victims rode HART buses. Benjamin Mitchell, 22, was waiting for a HART bus on North 15th Street at Frierson Avenue when he was shot and later died on Oct. 9. Anthony Naiboa, a former classmate of Mitchell at Middleton High School, was trying to catch a bus when he was killed walking north on 15th Street on Oct. 19. The body of Monica Hoffa, 32, was found about a mile away in a vacant lot on Oct. 13.

Six cameras are mounted inside all HART buses and would show passengers getting on or off, Sandra Morrison, a HART spokeswoman said Monday.

Morrison said the transit agency’s safety and security staff have been working with Tampa police since the beginning of the investigation.

“We have shared an extensive amount of video clips (with police),” she said. Some of the video clips are from the Route 9 bus, which provided service in the Seminole Heights area where the shootings occurred, she said.

Since the shootings, HART has changed the Seminole Heights bus route. Route 9 now travels via 22nd Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Hillsborough Avenue daily from 7 p.m. - 5 a.m. Morrison said the detour will remain until the investigation is resolved.

HART decided to reroute the bus “to ensure the safety of our employees and customers,” the bus system said in a statement.

Morrison said she had no knowledge of whether the video clips have proven helpful to police.

Tampa police have saturated the Seminole Heights area since the shootings. Officers have been escorting students to school bus stops in the neighborhood. And HART says police officers are available for anyone who needs an escort after getting off of a city bus.

The Tampa Police Department have released a new video of a "person of interest" in the investigation. It is the second video of the "person of interest" released in the case.

The new video shows the person in the area where the first shooting happened on Oct. 9. Police, as they have for days now, are asking that anyone who might know the person to come forward.

The new video can be viewed here. Police say they brought in two people who they believed might be the person in the video. They were questioned and later released.

Photo via Tampa Police Department