Is Home Invasion Linked to Homicide? (VIDEO)

St. Petersburg Police released a surveillance video today from a June 5 home invasion robbery that have links to a pair of

According to police, on June 5 at 4:07 a.m., officers responded to a call about a home invasion robbery at 3614 5th Ave. S.

The victim, Ernest Rayfield Wright, 77, told officers that he and his girlfriend were awakened by a loud crash in the living room.

Three suspects with handguns kicked in the front door and entered the victim's bedroom. One suspect held the victims at gunpoint, while the other two ransacked the home, police said.

Police said the three suspects were described as black males with T-shirts covering their faces and gloves on their hands.

One was heavy, one had a medium build and the third was described as "skinny."

All three suspects left with a television, DVD player, briefcase, a small amount of cash and other items.

As the suspects were leaving the house, Ernest Wright grabbed a shotgun in his bedroom and fired two rounds in the direction of the last suspect, as he left the front door, police said.

Both rounds struck an interior wall of the victim's home, and it did not appear the suspect was injured by the shotgun blasts, police said.

Neither of the victims was injured during the home invasion robbery.

The officers on the scene learned that the victim had security surveillance cameras mounted outside of his home.

The officers viewed the recorded video at the time of their initial investigation and noted the video was good quality and clearly showed the suspects entering the front door of the victim's home, but the victim did not know how to make a copy of the video at the time.

The following day, detectives went back to the victim's home to re-interview them and to view the video, but it appeared the victim, who did not understand how to operate the system very well, appeared to have inadvertently deleted the recording.

Later, video experts were able to retrieve the video recording from the victim's security system and provide a copy of the video to police investigators.

Police said the June 5 home invasion has some similarities between this case and the two cases on June 19.

On June 19 two home invasions were reported, which resulted in the death of 41-year-old Richard Shaw. 

These similarities include the time of day, the method of entering the home, the general description of the multiple armed suspects, plus a few other investigative details that police said would not be released to the public at this time.