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Dunedin drive-by shootings baffle residents, detectives

 
Vish Woods’ car sports a bullet hole in the door after it was struck during one of two recent drive-by shootings in Dunedin.
Vish Woods’ car sports a bullet hole in the door after it was struck during one of two recent drive-by shootings in Dunedin.
Published May 3, 2017

DUNEDIN — Vish Woods was doing laundry in his garage when he heard the gunshots.

He dashed through the open door to the driveway. But by the time he made it outside, the Dunedin cul-de-sac where he lives with his mom and brother was quiet again in the waning twilight.

Neighbors who heard the three shots emerged from their homes just in time to hear four more ring out from a street just north of them. A couple across the cul-de-sac from Woods called police.

It wasn't until the next morning that Woods, 36, noticed that bullets had gone into his red 1989 Toyota Supra — and he wasn't the only one. By the time the culprits were finished the night of April 22, a dozen 9mm bullets would pierce three cars, a boat and an occupied home, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

No one was injured, but the apparent drive-by shooting has residents baffled as to why bullets were flying in their typically low-crime neighborhoods and deputies searching for the person or people responsible.

"Thirty-one years in this house, and we've never ever had anything like this," said 69-year-old Mary Horrell, Woods' neighbor who called police. "So this is a little disturbing."

The shootings happened about 8:20 p.m. in two clusters of homes about two miles apart, but detectives believe they're related. Woods' car was parked on Sleepy Hollow Court and another work van that was struck several times was sitting outside a home just north on Ohio Avenue — both within the city limits of Dunedin, which contracts with the Sheriff's Office for law enforcement. The other three homes were on Wilshire Drive and Stacy Court in the Wilshire Estates neighborhood in unincorporated Pinellas County.

It appears property, not people, was targeted in the shootings, said Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Spencer Gross. But the crimes against persons unit is investigating because of the potential for violence, had someone been in the cars or in the path of the bullet that ripped through one of the homes.

"You go shooting through a neighborhood, that's violent," Gross said.

Last year, Dunedin saw a total of 54 violent crimes, just 6 percent of crimes of the same category in the Sheriff's Office jurisdiction. The patrol area the other homes fall into, which includes unincorporated land from Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard to Tampa Road, saw 61, or 7 percent of the agency total.

Random destruction of property isn't unheard of. Gross cited lesser examples such as people targeting mailboxes or vehicles with a baseball bat or golf club.

"Is that (using a gun) the new level?" said Chuck Pollock, the work van driver. "That's a scary thought."

Pollock, 43, had spent the day in Bradenton at soccer tournaments with his two sons, 13 and 15. They returned home that night to four patrol cars and deputies combing through the grass and street with flashlights.

At first, he found three bullet holes in the van, which was parallel-parked in the yard in front of his Ohio Avenue home. Two were in the driver's door and one was just behind the driver's side wheel well. But when he went to start the van, fuel started dumping out of the car. A bullet had hit the engine compartment, he said.

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He guessed repairs for damages at $3,000 to $4,000. The burden won't fall on him because the van is owned by the facilities management company he works for, he said.

A couple of miles away on Wilshire Drive, William Gilkes wasn't so lucky. He didn't get comprehensive insurance on his 2002 Volvo wagon because of its age and because Gilkes, normally a motorcycle commuter, drives the car only when it rains.

Three bullets ripped through the wagon's tailgate, the back window and the driver's side window, he said, causing about $2,000 in damage. Like Woods, he didn't notice it until the morning after the shooting.

Gilkes, 48, and his wife, Donyell, had been at Charley's Steak House in Tampa celebrating their 22nd wedding anniversary. The couple saw the damage as they were getting ready to go to breakfast and called the Sheriff's Office.

Like detectives, Gilkes and the other residents who spoke to the Tampa Bay Times believe the shooting was random. Horrell and her husband, David, think the driver turned onto their cul-de-sac by accident, thinking it was a cut-through to Ohio Avenue. Gilkes thinks it was "just some kids out on a Saturday night."

"I knew I hadn't made anybody mad enough to shoot," he said.

Even so, Woods and the Horrells were both shaken enough that they plan to install surveillance cameras outside their homes. Gilkes is just grateful none of the bullets went inside his home, where his 20-year-old son, Austin, was playing video games that night.

"What disturbs me is it was so early," Gilkes said. "The bullets they were using . . . could have gone anywhere."

Contact Kathryn Varn at (727) 893-8913 or kvarn@tampabay.com. Follow @kathrynvarn.