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Letter to the editor

Hunt for suspects continues

Police charge one suspect with four crimes after a fatal shooting.

By JONATHAN ABEL, Times Staff Writer
Published October 10, 2007

Clearwater police officers approach a house while searching Tuesday for suspects in the Monday afternoon shooting. Police believe there was more than one person involved in the incident.
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Jim Damaske | Times] A Clearwater police canine officer helps his partner over a fence during a search Tuesday for suspects in the Monday afternoon shooting of a car containing three Clearwater brothers. One of the brothers died after his car crashed into a utility pole. Gaylord O. Shaw, 19, is accused of shooting at a car carrying four people, one of whom died.

CLEARWATER - As heavily armed police continued an extraordinary house-to-house search in North Greenwood Tuesday, the one man arrested in Monday's fatal shooting and car wreck was hit with an additional three counts of attempted murder.

Gaylord O. Shaw, 19, of Clearwater is accused of shooting at a car carrying four people, one of whom died.

Police suspect that there was more than one person involved in the shooting, which took place shortly before 1 p.m. Monday on N Betty Lane.

No additional suspects have been identified, nor have police discussed a possible motive for the attack.

But police, relatives and neighbors said the shooters and victims had feuded in recent weeks.

Officials did not, however, link Monday's shooting with another fatal attack that took place nearby last month.

Gaylord Shaw, who was arrested Monday night on a charge of first-degree murder, lost his older brother, Joseph O. Shaw, on Sept. 18 in a home invasion shooting less than a mile away.

No arrests have been made in that case, though police have named Joseph Lee Simmons, 21, of Dunedin as a suspect and have said they are looking for up to three other people as well.

"At this point we have no information that they are connected," police spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts said of the two shootings.

Gaylord Shaw is accused of killing Michael Scott, 23, of Clearwater. Scott was at the wheel of a gold Dodge Intrepid that was stopped at the intersection of N Betty Lane and Springdale Street, police said.

Shaw fired several times at the car with a handgun while it was stopped and ran after the Dodge, continuing to fire, as it rolled away from the intersection, according to an arrest affidavit.

Michael Scott was hit by gunfire in the chest and right knee and crashed into a utility pole at N Betty Lane and Woodbine Street. He died, and his brother Antonio Scott was hospitalized with injuries from the accident. Relatives plan a vigil at the scene at 5 p.m. today.

Witnesses identified Shaw as the shooter, an arrest report states. Shaw told investigators that he was at the scene but denied firing at the car.

In addition to Michael and Antonio Scott, their brother Willie Scott, 25, was inside the car. There was also a third passenger, Lawrence Fleming, 24. Willie Scott and Fleming ran away after the Intrepid crashed, police said.

Joann Shaw, 17, said that her brother Gaylord and his friends have had trouble for months with the victims of Monday's crash, but she denied that her brother was involved in the shooting.

She said that her brother Joseph was on good terms with the Scott brothers, so it wouldn't make any sense for Gaylord to be involved in some form of retaliation.

"The police, they got the wrong suspect," said Joann Shaw. When Gaylord Shaw heard that police wanted to question him, he turned himself in.

"What person who killed someone would turn themselves in?" she said.

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 727 445-4157.

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 21:19:03]