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I-75 shooting: a random crime?

Investigators search for a reason, from road rage to a hunting accident, for the Sunday killing.

By KEVIN GRAHAM and JAMAL THALJI
Published March 8, 2005

[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle] A bullet hole is visible on David Addison Neel's 1990 Ford F250 pickup. The truck is being held at the Falkenburg Road Jail while authorities comb it for evidence. Neel was shot in the chest Sunday on I-75 as he returned to the Plant City Strawberry Festival.

David Addison Neel exited at I-4 and hit a tree near the ramp after he was shot.

TAMPA - Investigators are trying to solve the mystery behind the death of a 49-year-old security guard who was shot in the chest Sunday as he drove his pickup truck along Interstate 75.

Was it road rage?

Was it a stray bullet from a hunter that passed through the driver's side of David Addison Neel's 1990 Ford F250?

"My gut feeling is that it's more sinister than that," Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said Monday. "We are concerned about the apparent randomness of this crime."

Investigators say Neel of Wesley Chapel has nothing in his background that would have led to Sunday's shooting. His wife and daughter are public school teachers.

Preliminary details from the investigation reveal that Neel may have been shot on I-75 by someone in a passing vehicle, which would have been slightly ahead of and to the left of his truck, the Sheriff's Office said.

But Gee said no witnesses have reported any signs of road rage. No one has come forward to say Neel was driving erratically. He appeared to be driving the speed limit, Gee said, traveling in the inside lane of I-75.

He exited at I-4 and his truck veered off the roadway, hitting a tree on the east side of the ramp. The Florida Highway Patrol arrived at the scene first, shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday, to investigate a crash, Gee said. About an hour later, FHP called in the Sheriff's Office. The case had become a murder investigation.

Neel, 687 Angus Valley, was on his way to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, Gee said. He'd been there earlier in the day with his family. Neel had dropped off livestock at the festival and decided to go home to leave his livestock trailer, then return.

Gee said detectives aren't sure what kind of gun was used in the shooting. They haven't ruled out a handgun or rifle. The Sheriff's Office is working with the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to determine the trajectory of the bullet.

"We believe it was fired in fairly close proximity," Gee said.

Investigators closed down southbound lanes of I-75 from Fowler Avenue to I-4 for about three hours Sunday. They walked the interstate shoulder to shoulder, looking for clues. Gee said they recovered some materials, but he wouldn't say what.

The Sheriff's Office also is waiting on the medical examiner's office to tell them how long Neel could have survived with his injury to determine where along the interstate he may have been shot. The bullet entered the middle of the the driver's side door, just below the window. Neel was hit in the upper left side of his chest.

* * *

Several vehicles were piled inside the wire fence in front of the Neel mobile home in Wesley Chapel on Monday. A spent fire crackled in the yard.

The family was too upset to comment on Neel's death.

Pasco school officials say Neel's wife, 50-year-old Debra Neel, is a foreign language teacher at Pasco High School in Dade City. His daughter Ann Marie Neel, 25, the valedictorian at Pasco High in 1998, teaches agriculture at Weightman Middle School in Wesley Chapel.

Neel was one of three children of Billy and Evelyn Neel. His father, who died last year, was born in Tampa and was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Lutz, according to a Tampa Tribune obituary.

Neel has lived in Pasco County for most of the past 20 years.

State records show he got a concealed weapons permit in 2000 for the purpose of working as a security officer. Gee said he worked as a security guard for a subdivision in Hillsborough County. Neel also has a hunting and fishing permit.

If the bullet that killed Neel came from someone hunting along the 4-mile stretch of I-75 between Fowler and I-4, Gee said he'd hope the person would come forward. He said the Sheriff's Office has received several calls from people saying they heard gunfire in the area about the time Neel was shot. But that's not unusual, Gee said.

There aren't any shooting ranges in the area. However, private property owners are allowed to hunt in the area as long as they comply with state Fish and Wildlife regulations, Gee said.

"As long as you aren't recklessly discharging a firearm ... you can hunt," Gee said. "I don't think that's going to be the case here."

Gee wants anyone who traveled on I-75 between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday and may have seen Neel's truck to call the Sheriff's Office.

Neel drove a 1990 Ford F250 XLT Lariat. It's blue from about the side mirrors down, and the upper part of the truck is gray. It also had a gray camper top on it.

Several bumper stickers were on the windows on the camper top. On the passenger side window of the camper top, a 93.3 FLZ sticker; on the left side window of the camper, a faded American flag sticker. A second faded American flag sticker was also on the back window of the camper, along with Q105 Country and WQYK 99.5 bumper stickers and one that read "Elect Bubba for Sheriff."

Gee said it's possible that deputies will have to shut down part of I-75 again to search for more clues.

"We're waiting to see what we think will become of that ... and what the most logical step in that would be," Gee said.

To report any information about Sunday's shooting, call the the Sheriff's Office at 813-247-8200 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 873-8477.

--Times staff researcher Carolyn Edds and staff writer Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler contributed to this report. Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 8, 2005, 16:52:55]