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Teen stable after being shot at mobile home park

A neighbor found the girl, 15, lying on the ground outside her boyfriend's home.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published July 5, 2006

ZEPHYRHILLS - As the teenager lay with a gunshot wound in her upper chest, Margaret Scott tried to hold her still.

"She was moving," said Scott, 43. "She was breathing. Not really bleeding, but there was foam and blood and mucus coming out of her mouth. All I know is, I didn't want the bleeding to start up. When somebody's been shot, hold them steady."

The 15-year-old girl was shot at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday outside 3041 Briar St. in Zephyrhills' Timber Lake Estates, a 480-unit mobile home park.

Police did not release her name, but neighbors knew her as Shanell. They thought she and her parents live in the same park.

At 8 p.m., deputies were still unsure if the shooting was accidental.

No arrests had been made, and the girl's condition was stable but uncertain.

But at nightfall, detectives had the girl's boyfriend, 16-year-old Nathan J. Hayes, locked in a police cruiser. Hayes lives at 3041 Briar St. with his grandmother .

They let him out only to go to the bathroom, and for crime scene unit officers to take pictures of his bare, apparently bloodstained, torso.

Neighbors on the narrow stretch of Briar Street say he has a troubled history, which followed him into the relationship with the girl.

His mother died in a fire in the same park, when Hayes was a little boy. Records show Heidi Hayes died in a fire at 3210 Hickory Drive in 1998. Hayes was 8 at the time.

Nobody seemed to know where his father, Walter Hayes is.

"His grandmother is so nice," said Carrie Pellegrino, a neighbor. "But he'll fight with anyone and everyone. He gets angry when anybody tells him what to do."

"He's known to carry a gun with him," said Joann Baroody, another neighbor. "He's lived here since he was that tall," she said pointing to a 2-foot-tall toddler. "He's not a very nice person. Speeds up and down the block. He's been thrown out before."

Shanell and Hayes had dated for about six months, neighbors said.

They argued constantly, Scott said.

At about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Baroody said she saw Hayes going toward the house with what appeared to be a weapon held at his side.

Scott, just pulling into her home next to Hayes' trailer, said she saw Shanell lying on the ground as she came in.

Scott raced toward the girl. She said Hayes called 911.

Pellegrino, coming out to investigate, said Hayes pointed the blame on unnamed strangers.

"He said, 'Some n----- drove by and shot my girlfriend,' " she said. "But nobody else has seen black people in here. It's hard to find an African-American person here."

Outside the white, single-wide mobile home where Hayes lives, Shanell lay gasping as Scott tried to help her.

Scott said 10 minutes passed before rescue workers showed up to airlift the girl to a Tampa hospital.

"At this point, from what I know, her condition has stabilized," said Doug Tobin, the sheriff's spokesman, at 7:50 p.m.

Detectives are still trying to sort out conflicting statements from neighbors, Tobin said.

Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.

[Last modified July 5, 2006, 06:01:37]