TAMPA — A neighborhood dispute turned bloody Monday night around 9:30, leaving one man shot in the head and another in the chest at 2326 W Walnut St.
Silvia Rangel, 17, who lives in the pastel blue house at 2326 W Walnut St., said the bloodshed had its roots in a fight over a parking space a month ago with residents of a yellow house next door, at 2330 W Walnut St.
Someone wanted to leave, someone else whose car was blocking the way wouldn't move it. Things got ugly.
A fight started, and it came to an abrupt end with no real resolution, she said, when a woman from the yellow house emerged with a knife, and a friend at the blue house brandished a baseball bat.
The blue house residents and yellow house residents have traded stares ever since.
"We've lived here for 17 years," Rangel said. "They just moved in."
Then Monday, Rangel said, she was in the house at 9:24 p.m. talking on the phone when she heard four gunshots. Scared, she waited a couple of moments, then ran out the front door and saw her brother, Pedro Celis, 21, shot in the chest but still staggering, and his friend shot in head and sprawled on ground.
The two men had been sitting on their porch, she said.
Police Lt. Jack Diaz said officers are still working the scene and have three possible suspects in custody.
One of the suspects is a resident of the yellow house. He said two men were walking past the blue house when someone on the porch called out to them, asking why they were walking past the house.
Then, Diaz said, one of the men on the porch of the blue house pulled a gun and racked the slide, arming it with a round in the chamber.
At that, a man in a car started shooting, and possibly one of the men walking joined in, Diaz said.
Both men on the porch were shot and have life-threatening injuries. They are in St. Joseph's Hospital, Diaz said.
Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3354.
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