Crime journal

By Times Staff Writer
Published November 21, 2007

LARGO

Police find mother of baby found in street

Remember that weird case in which police said a motorist found a baby in the road at 66th Street and Ulmerton Road? Police on Tuesday said tips had led them to the child's mother, Tamika N. Wynn, 24, of Largo. Wynn told investigators that her 2-year-old daughter unfastened her car seat restraint, opened the door of the moving car and fell out the evening of Nov. 13. Another driver scooped the girl up, and Wynn snatched her back, saying she would take her to a hospital. After tips led police to Wynn, she told them she left because she was driving with a suspended license. Police referred her case to the State Attorney's Office for a felony count of child neglect because Wynn did not get medical treatment for her daughter. The girl had a bump on her head.

PORT RICHEY

Tampa woman tried to keep money from scam, police say

The woman might have been considered the victim of a scam - until she realized what she was onto. Authorities say Elaine Zelda Whiteford, 56, of Tampa corresponded by e-mail in October with people promising a huge payoff in the Nigerian lottery. They told her she was being sent two checks totaling $15,000, money that had actually come from a 70-year-old Merritt Island man who was also promised a windfall. Whiteford tried to cash the checks Nov. 2 at a Fidelity Bank branch on U.S. 19, the report says. She told a deputy that she knew the deal was bogus but was keeping the money because she'd been scammed in the past. She was arrested Tuesday, charged with a scheme to defraud. She was released from jail after posting $5,000 bail.

SPRING HILL

Hernando deputy kills distraught man with gun

Neighbors described 25-year-old Kyle Gabelman as a "lit fuse." His quick temper exploded Tuesday after a breakup with his girlfriend. He became irrational, depressed and suicidal. Then he became armed with a small black handgun. Hernando County sheriff's deputies arrived. But Gabelman still seethed. At 1:53 p.m., he walked out the door of his parents' home at 13411 Banyan Road in Spring Hill and fired a shot. Authorities said he aimed at deputies. Eyewitnesses were not so sure. A Hernando County sheriff's deputy armed with a semiautomatic assault rifle fired a series of bullets that hit Gabelman. He died on the concrete driveway outside his tan home with dark brown shutters, investigators say. The Sheriff's Office said this is the first shooting death involving a deputy in some time.

[Last modified November 21, 2007, 00:09:30]