An apparent home break-in erupts into shots in the night as one man lay dead and nearby residents duck for cover.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published March 26, 2004
LARGO - The gunshots startled Camisha Williams out of bed early Thursday morning. She sneaked to her kitchen window to look outside and found herself staring at a bullet hole.
She turned around and saw where the bullet ended up: in her kitchen cabinet. Williams darted into her three kids' bedroom and shook them awake to make sure they were not hit.
The shot had come from an apartment across the way just after 3:30 a.m. Neighbors found a man lying in the unit's doorway, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. No one else was in the apartment.
Police identified the dead man as Gregory V. Hall, 26, a lifetime Largo resident who did not live at the apartment, 330 Fourth St. SW.
Detectives spent the day trying to sort out what happened to Hall.
By late Thursday, they had learned this: Hall and two of his friends forced their way into the apartment, perhaps in search of drugs or money. One of them had a gun. A man in the apartment heard them coming in and fired shots.
"This was definitely an unwelcome visit," Largo police Chief Lester Aradi said. "It was a home invasion."
Hall's two confederates, Antonio Golden and Henry Echols, also were hit. Golden was hit in the arm, Echols in the tailbone. They ran from the apartment and hunkered down outside a nearby house, police said. One of them used a cell phone to call his mother and told her to come pick them up. She took them to the hospital, according to police.
They later were released and were being interviewed by detectives Thursday evening.
The man who fired on them also ran off after the shooting. Police were searching for him Thursday. Investigators don't believe he leased the apartment, Aradi said.
Aradi said it's uncertain if the killing would be considered self-defense or if the shooter will face charges. He said Golden and Echols could face charges in connection with the home invasion.
Under Florida law, Golden and Echols also could be charged with murder in connection with Hall's death because it occurred during the commission of a felony robbery.
Aradi said detectives were consulting with prosecutors Thursday.
Detectives said they think Hall and his friends were involved in another home invasion and shooting at Chaparral Apartments, 601 Rosery Road, an hour before the fatal shooting. In that case, three men with shirts wrapped around their faces forced their way into an apartment occupied by five people.
The robbers tried to take jewelry from a man inside. When he refused, one of the robbers fired two shots, one of which hit the man in the leg. He was taken to the hospital, treated and released.
The suspects left that robbery in a white Pontiac. Hall and his friends arrived at the Fourth Street apartment in a white Pontiac, police said. That car was reported stolen from Dunedin on Tuesday.
"They were responsible for both home invasions," Aradi said.
Neighbor Wanda Montgomery said she went up to the apartment after hearing the shots and saw Hall. He was wearing jean shorts, a black hooded sweat shirt and a wave cap. His fists were clenched and he lay in the doorway, "feet inside, body outside," she said.
Detective Keith Barton said Hall may have known the shooter through a drug connection, though there was no conversation before the shots rang out.
"Basically, they locked eyes and shots are fired," Barton said. "No words were spoken."
Police later found marijuana inside the apartment, he said. They also found a gun in the apartment, but had not determined whose gun it was, Aradi said.
Hall, who would have turned 27 on Sunday, has a long criminal history in Pinellas County. More than 50 charges have been lodged against him since 1994, many of them for drug possession or traffic offenses. He was released from prison Dec. 12 after serving a 30-month sentence for escape.
His sister, Joy Hall, said her brother steered clear of more serious trouble. She found it strange that police say he was involved in a robbery attempt.
"That was unusual for him," she said. "He would never be involved in that type of activity. I know that just ain't my brother."
She said her brother is survived by a 2-year-old son. "He will be greatly missed," she said.
The shooting left neighbors at the complex, which is across the block from the Pinellas County School Board building, rattled.
"I was so scared, I didn't even want to get out of bed," said Montgomery, who lives there with her two children. "I'm moving."
Williams, whose cabinet of plates and bowls was dented with a bullet hole, said she was scared, too.
"It freaked me out thinking of my kids," she said. "It could have come through my wall and into my kids' room."
