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Friend recalls Florida Hospital Tampa shooter as devoted husband

 
Sheriff's Col. Donna Lusczynski briefs reporters from the scene where a woman was shot and killed inside Florida Hospital Tampa just after 7 a.m. Monday. The shooter then committed suicide. The victim was identified as 41-year-old Alonna Tedesco, inset. The shooter's name has not been released. The incident happened on the third floor of the main building and was contained to one room. Sheriff's deputies arrived within 2 minutes after receiving multiple 911 calls.
Sheriff's Col. Donna Lusczynski briefs reporters from the scene where a woman was shot and killed inside Florida Hospital Tampa just after 7 a.m. Monday. The shooter then committed suicide. The victim was identified as 41-year-old Alonna Tedesco, inset. The shooter's name has not been released. The incident happened on the third floor of the main building and was contained to one room. Sheriff's deputies arrived within 2 minutes after receiving multiple 911 calls.
Published Nov. 24, 2015

Steven Reynolds was sobbing in the phone message. He'd had to put his wife, Mary, in an assisted living facility because she was declining from Alzheimer's disease.

But when Charles Layne called his friend back last week, he reached a calmer, more composed Reynolds.

"Of course he was upset," Layne said. "You have to take your 18-year wife and put her somewhere you promised you never would. But it got to the point where everyone agreed she needed to have assisted living."

That was last Wednesday. In the meantime, Layne said, Mary Reynolds was moved from the assisted living facility to Florida Hospital Tampa.

It was there, in her room on the third floor, that authorities say Steven Reynolds pulled a gun Monday morning, shooting and killing his stepdaughter Alonna Tedesco who was there visiting her mother.

Reynolds, 70, then turned the gun on himself.

"Between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, something happened that was just too much," Layne said. "He was loving and caring and nurturing to Mary up until the last moment — something must have set him off."

MURDER-SUICIDE: Alonna Tedesco remembered as loving wife, mom, neighbor

Hillsborough sheriff's officials have not released a motive for the shooting, which stunned Tedesco's family and friends. She was married to Dr. John Tedesco, an osteopathic family practice physician. Both had worked for Florida Medical Clinic, a chain of small medical offices in Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

A registered nurse, Tedesco began working in August as a school nurse in Pasco County for Hudson Middle and Hudson High schools.

The Tedescos lived with their sons in Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club, a gated community near Dade City. They moved to the area after they were married about 10 years ago.

Residents of the close-knit neighborhood echoed each other in describing Alonna Tedesco as a gracious woman dedicated to her husband and two sons.

"I can't imagine the neighborhood — or the world— without Alonna," neighbor Jeanie Weightman said. "She was the heart of the neighborhood."

Reynolds and Mary, his third wife, also lived in Lake Jovita less than a mile from the Tedescos' home.