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By Times staff and wire reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 2, 2001
Fireworks to follow illuminated parade
ST. PETERSBURG -- The Festival of States Illuminated Night Parade starts at 8 tonight along Bayshore Drive. The Skyview High School band from Vancouver, Wash., one of two out-of-state bands at the festival, will march. Fireworks will start at 9:15 p.m. The festival highlight, the TradeWinds Resorts Festival Parade, begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, traveling east on Central Avenue to Bayshore Drive and north to Vinoy Park.
ST. PETERSBURG -- The woman who was struck and killed by a van late Friday in front of the Be-Jo Coin Laundry has been identified as Abby Jane Priest.
Priest, 34, was killed about 10:10 p.m. in front of the laundry at 4925 38th Ave. N. She was standing in front of a parked 1987 Ford van when, according to police reports, the van's driver, William Leslie Bass, 45, started the van and it lurched forward.
Priest was knocked to the ground, dragged several feet and pinned between the building and the front bumper of the van.
Priest was pronounced dead at the scene. Her home address was not released. St. Petersburg police are still investigating whether alcohol was involved. No charges have been filed.
TAMPA -- A man found shot to death early Saturday in the parking lot of a 20th Street N apartment complex has been identified as Mohan Bhimull, 41.
Authorities said Bhimull lived in Fredericksburg Apartments and was found a few feet outside of his apartment, No. 110.
Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies responded to a call of shots fired at the complex about 3:30 a.m. Saturday. When they arrived, they found Bhimull's body.
Officials did not specify a motive for the shooting, but said they are looking for a compact yellow pickup truck and the three men inside seen leaving the complex immediately after the shooting. Anyone with information should call Crimestoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS.
DAYTONA BEACH -- Black College Reunion ended Sunday free of the trouble and controversy that has plagued the annual spring break gathering of college-age African Americans in the past.
Law enforcement and hoteliers credited rainy weekend weather with keeping attendance smaller than the 100,000 people who have shown up in past years, and officers were better able to control crowds and keep traffic moving.
After two days of scattered showers, Black College Reunion attendees left Daytona Beach on a picture-perfect day of sunshine and a blue, cloudless sky.
"It's the calmest one in the six years that I've been here," said Stuart Arp, general manager of the Adam's Mark hotel, the unofficial center of the festivities.
As of early Sunday morning, there were 436 arrests, mostly for drug possession and disorderly conduct, but including 16 people for carrying a concealed firearm, said Sgt. Al Tolley, a spokesman for the Daytona Beach Police.
Police officers were posted on almost every block, something that Cynthia Slater, president of the local NAACP chapter, said was excessive and isn't done at other major events such as Bike Week and Speed Week. She said she received one complaint of a Daytona Beach Shores motel being rude to black guests.
"It was calmer, but the NAACP will always have a problem with the overpresence of law enforcement," Slater said. "They were issuing tickets for minor infractions and we saw a lot of people pulled over."
BRADENTON -- Investigators are searching for a woman who may have kidnapped her boyfriend's 3-year-old son -- an investigation that has been hampered because the boyfriend doesn't know the woman's last name.
Corey Gavin Jr. and the woman have not been seen since Wednesday, a day after Corey Gavin Sr. left the boy in her care. Gavin, 25, told investigators that while he had been dating the woman for four months he only knew her as "Mia."
And even that name might not be real -- other people knew the 20-year-old woman as "Amber."
"She's a mystery," Manatee County sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow said. "Obviously he trusted her, but he doesn't know her full name. It is one of the strangest cases I've seen. We are kind of baffled by this. It's bizarre."
Gavin let the woman take the boy to her home Tuesday night and on Wednesday she brought the boy back to his home, where she told Gavin's cousin that she was taking the boy to the beach, investigators said. They never returned.
Gavin went to the woman's New Port Richey home, but her roommate said she had not seen her for days. He called the sheriff's office.
The woman is believed to be driving a borrowed 1991 gray Nissan Sentra, and is a regular at Tampa's Ybor City nightclubs, investigators said.
MARCO ISLAND -- A 77-year-old pilot who lost control in tough crosswinds moments before landing at Marco Island Executive Airport died when his plane skidded into nearby mangroves.
Glenn Cross struggled with the crosswinds and had the landing gear of his twin-engine Aerostar plane just two feet off the runway when he lost control and crashed, witnesses said.
The Aerostar burst into flames when it hit the mangroves, killing Cross in the crash at 10:20 a.m. EST Saturday.
Cross, of North Canton, Ohio, also had a condominium near the airport. Each winter, he flew into the airport several times, according to airport employees.
ALACHUA -- A couple's argument turned deadly when the husband pulled out a gun and shot his wife and then himself as his stepson tried to stop the fight.
Deputies called by the 17-year-old found the bodies of his stepfather, Quinn Blitch, 44, and his mother, Kathy Blitch, 41, at their home in Alachua, 10 miles northwest of Gainesville just after midnight Saturday.
The argument became violent when Quinn Blitch started hitting his wife, then dragged her into the bedroom, according to Alachua sheriff's Sgt. Jim Troiano said.
Kathy Blitch's teenage son jumped on his stepfather's back, trying to stop the fight, Troiano said. But Quinn Blitch got a gun and shot Kathy Blitch.
As the son rushed to help his mother, Quinn Blitch shot himself, he said. The couple's 7-year-old son also was home at the time of the shootings.
LARGO -- About 600 inmates at the Pinellas County Jail were unable to take a shower over the weekend. Water pressure at the jail's F Wing dropped Friday afternoon and was repaired late Saturday, said Pinellas County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Greg Tita. Inmates were given drinking water and buckets filled with water to flush the toilets. On Sunday, most of the toilets were fixed, inmates were able to take showers and county maintenance workers were fixing remaining problems. Tita said jail officials were unsure about what caused the problem.
DAYTONA BEACH -- Black College Reunion ended Sunday free of the trouble and controversy that has plagued the annual spring break gathering of college-age African Americans in the past.
Law enforcement and hoteliers credited rainy weekend weather with keeping attendance smaller than the 100,000 people who have shown up in past years, and officers were better able to control crowds and keep traffic moving.
After two days of scattered showers, Black College Reunion attendees left Daytona Beach on a picture-perfect day of sunshine and a blue, cloudless sky.
"It's the calmest one in the six years that I've been here," said Stuart Arp, general manager of the Adam's Mark hotel, the unofficial center of the festivities.
As of early Sunday morning, there were 436 arrests, mostly for drug possession and disorderly conduct, but including 16 people for carrying a concealed firearm, said Sgt. Al Tolley, a spokesman for the Daytona Beach Police.
Police officers were posted on almost every block, something that Cynthia Slater, president of the local NAACP chapter, said was excessive and isn't done at other major events such as Bike Week and Speed Week.