One dead after wreck, shooting
Five schools were locked down and more than 100 people rushed onto N Betty Lane.
By JONATHAN ABEL, Times Staff Writer
Published October 9, 2007
CLEARWATER - A bizarre shooting and wreck Monday afternoon left one man dead and led police to lock down five schools during a tense, chaotic manhunt.
Dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies, some of them heavily armed, fanned out through the working class neighborhood on N Betty Lane after the 12:43 p.m. shooting.
Officers with guns drawn approached one house, and elements of the SWAT team surrounded another for several hours before learning that the man inside had been asleep the whole time and was not the person they were seeking.
Killed was 23-year-old Michael Scott of Clearwater. His brother, Antonio Scott, 24, was injured in the crash, police said, and was in stable condition at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg Monday evening.
Arrested on a count of first-degree murder was 19-year-old Gaylord Shaw of 1112 S Prospect Ave., Clearwater. But others also might have been involved in the shooting, police said.
Many details - including how many shots were fired and whether Michael Scott died of gunshot wounds or injuries suffered in the crash - remained under investigation.
The incident began with an argument in the parking lot of a convenience store at N Betty Lane and Springdale Street, according to police spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts.
The Scotts' car left the parking lot and was driving north on N Betty Lane when several shots were fired, police said.
But a third brother in the car, 25-year-old Willie Scott, said the men were ambushed.
The three had just stopped at a North Greenwood CD shop and were heading north along Betty Lane on the way to their mother's house when they were attacked, he said.
Near Springdale Street, "some dudes came out of the house and started firing," he said. Farther up, he said, more armed people appeared to be waiting.
After the shooting, the Scotts' gold and pewter Dodge made it less than a block up N Betty Lane before it rammed into a pole at Woodbine Street.
Michael Scott was rushed to Morton Plant Hospital but died. An autopsy will be performed today.
As police swarmed into the neighborhood, more than 100 people poured onto N Betty Lane and pushed up to police lines. At times, the atmosphere was confrontational. At one point, when officers put one young man into a cruiser, onlookers yelled that the police had the wrong person.
Connie Moore, 48, a maternal aunt of the two victims, said the young men had feuded with another group recently, but she thought the trouble had passed.
While she spoke Monday afternoon, Willie Scott paced by her side along the road.
He should have done more to protect his brothers, he said.
No, she said, there's nothing anyone could have done in an ambush.
Michael Scott's nickname was "Big Baby," Moore said. He was enrolled at St. Petersburg College to get his GED. Michael was also father to a 2-year-old daughter, Trinity Scott.
Antonio Scott, according to his aunt, had done some nursing work for a private client and has a 2-year-old son, Antonio Scott Jr.
Five schools - Kings Highway Elementary, Curtis Fundamental Elementary, Sandy Lane Elementary, John F. Kennedy Middle and the Calvin A. Hunsinger School - were locked down starting at about 1 p.m.
The schools held a "controlled dismissal," school district spokeswoman Andrea Zahn said. Students who rode the bus or were picked up by car were allowed to leave, while those who biked or walked were kept at schools until other arrangements could be made to get them home.
The lockdown wasn't completely lifted until after 4 p.m.
Meanwhile police continued to search and piece together clues.
Police Capt. Tony Holloway said investigators identified one suspect, largely thanks to seven or eight tips from neighbors.
Still, many questions remained.
"We don't know how this thing has started, why it has started or why it's going on," Holloway said. "But it's got to stop."
Times staff writers Demorris A. Lee and Will Van Sant and researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 727 445-4157.