2 teens hurt in drive-by shooting

A Gibsonton boy and girl may have been targeted over a fight Friday, other kids say.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO and CATHERINE E. SHOICHET, Times Staff Writers
Published December 18, 2007

Brehanna Davis, 17, stands down the street from where her sister Jessica Davis, 16, was shot Monday after getting off a school bus at Carriage Point Drive and Lilly Bay Court in Gibsonton. "She was at the wrong place at the wrong time," Brehanna said.
	[Kathleen Flynn | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Special to the Times] East Bay High student Jessica Davis, 16, was shot Monday.

GIBSONTON - Monday was payback day, teens who live here said.

At 3:30 p.m., gunshots exploded near the entrance of the Carriage Pointe subdivision, wounding two East Bay High School students who were walking home from the school bus stop. People who know the victims said the violence stemmed from a fistfight on Friday.

Helicopters took two 16-year-olds, a girl and a boy, to Tampa General Hospital, the Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman said.

The Sheriff's Office released few details Monday evening, withholding the victims' names and medical conditions as they questioned witnesses. But family members identified the female victim as Jessica Davis.

"Nobody expected it to go this far," said Shanee Carter, 17, an East Bay junior who said she knows both victims.

Sheriff's Sgt. Susan Bradford said deputies got a call about two students shot at Carriage Pointe Drive and Lilly Bay Court shortly after a bus left them at nearby Symmes and Ekker roads, the subdivision's entrance.

The teenagers were in stable condition and able to talk when flown out, rescuers said. The girl suffered a wound to her shoulder or upper torso, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. The boy was hit in his torso. School officials said both victims are sophomores, but the girl's siblings said she's a junior.

Investigators located a vehicle used in the shooting and questioned its adult driver and a juvenile passenger. They were looking for another passenger, believed to be a minor. No arrests had been made late Monday.

Kourtney Davis, the sister of the female victim, said she noticed a boy on her bus acting "suspicious" on the ride home, giving dirty looks to her and her older sister, Jessica.

After getting off the bus, the two sisters were walking behind the boy when a car passed them, drove down the street and came back, said Kourtney, 15.

A passenger pointed a gun, firing first at a 16-year-old boy and then at Jessica, Kourtney said.

"This is how we do it," Kourtney recalled the gunman saying.

The car, which Kourtney said was maroon, fled the scene with the angry boy from the bus inside while teenagers and adults rushed to the injured teens.

He was angry, she said, because his brother was beaten up Friday in a fight near the subdivision entrance. Jessica watched the fight but didn't participate, Kourtney said.

"He said he was going to get everyone who wasn't helping his brother," Kourtney said.

One of five children, Jessica Davis is a laid-back, down-to-earth tomboy, friends and siblings said. Her family's house is a regular afterschool gathering place for friends, classmate Shanee Carter said. The male victim is a close friend of Jessica's, she said.

Tears streamed down 17-year-old Brehanna Davis' face as she told one news reporter after another about how she reacted to news of the shooting. She tried to explain it to her 9-year-old sister.

Their brother, Deundray Davis, 18, punched a wall before going to the scene. The East Bay senior spoke with a hoarse voice Monday, saying he wished he hadn't stayed home sick from school.

He wished instead that he had gone to school and gotten suspended for fighting anyone who wanted to hurt his sister, he said.

East Bay High principal Sharon Morris said administrators were getting ready to lock up for the day when they got word of the shooting at about 4 p.m.

"It's horrible," she said. "I just hope those kids are okay."

Jessica's siblings spoke with her by phone about 6:30 p.m. and were encouraged that she was talking and joking. Their mother was with her.

Word of the shooting spread quickly among students still on campus. Serena Lawson, a senior, said she saw police cars and ambulances then heard about the shooting. She didn't know details.

"We'll probably find out tomorrow or tonight over MySpace," she said.

School district spokesman Stephen Hegarty said the principal confirmed that there are sometimes disputes among students living in the 2-year-old subdivision.

"I don't think that anyone at the school thought it would escalate to this point," he said. "We would have done something about it."

School officials plan extra security today at the bus stop, East Bay High and its feeder school, Eisenhower Middle. Counselors will assist students trying to cope with the shootings.

Students are in the middle of exam week.

"The message we're trying to give is come to school," Hegarty said. "It's safe, we have security. We've got work to do."

Neighborhood association leaders said they had already made plans to increase the presence of off-duty officers at Carriage Pointe in the new year.

Of the 382 homes in the recently built neighborhood, only about 57 percent are owner occupied, said board member Kasey Green. Many are owned by investors and rented out.

Two-year resident Marla Brandon, 40, said she had heard about a simmering dispute between teenagers before Monday but didn't expect it to end like this.

"If I'd have known it was going to escalate to this point," she said, "I would never have bought this house."

Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at rcatalanello@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3383. Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2454.

[Last modified December 18, 2007, 00:20:36]