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Drugs likely played role in slaying, police say
By ALICIA CALDWELL, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- A 23-year-old man was shot and killed early Saturday in what authorities said appeared to be a drug-related slaying. Eric J. Eure, of 903 Brookwood Court in St. Petersburg, was found dead in a car in an alley behind 627 1/2 29th Ave. S, said Sgt. Mike Puetz, who runs the St. Petersburg Police Department's homicide unit. Puetz said that officers were in the area about 4 a.m. investigating an unrelated call, an alarm that had been tripped, when they heard gunshots. The officers saw several people running across 29th Avenue S and took two into custody. Then, the officers found the car with Eure dead behind the wheel, Puetz said. There were spent shells on the ground, indicating Eure had been killed at the scene, Puetz said. After questioning the two people they caught fleeing the alley, they arrested one of them, Angelo Adkins, 31, of 3861 10th Ave. S, St. Petersburg, and charged him with first-degree murder, Puetz said. "We believe at this point that Mr. Eure had pulled into the area looking for drugs when he was confronted, shot and killed," Puetz said. "We don't know the precise motive at this time." Pinellas County court records show Adkins pleaded no contest to a 1999 charge of possession of marijuana. Adjudication was withheld. On Saturday evening, he was held in the Pinellas County jail without bail. Eure has had numerous encounters with the Pinellas judicial system during the last five years, records show, including convictions for forgery, credit card fraud and a no contest plea on charges of possession and sale of cocaine. Eure's death is the seventh homicide of the year in St. Petersburg.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
