Tampa Bay briefs

By Times staff and wire reports

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 29, 2001

Tampa man fatally shot outside nightclub

TAMPA -- A Tampa man was killed early Saturday after being shot outside a downtown nightclub, police said. James Davis, 21, of 401 E Seventh St. was shot in the overflow parking lot of Club XS, across from the Convention Center at S Franklin St. and Channelside Drive. Police said witnesses saw Davis standing in the overflow parking at 2:45 a.m. when another man approached from behind. The man pulled a handgun and shot Davis one time in the upper body. Immediately after the shooting, the man ducked into the passenger side of a light blue, Chevrolet four-door sedan and sped north on Florida Avenue. Davis was pronounced dead at Tampa General Hospital. "There was no confrontation, no nothing," said Joe Durkin, Tampa police spokesman. "Just boom! He walked up and shot him." Witnesses decribed the man as black, in his early 20s, with short dreadlocks, 5 feet 8 and weighing 165 pounds. They said he was wearing a navy blue T-shirt and light-colored, baggy pants.

Five injured in Pasco collision

PORT RICHEY -- An elderly couple was seriously injured in an accident Saturday afternoon on U.S. 19 just outside Gulfview Square Mall. At about 2:30 p.m. the couple, in a tan Toyota minivan, pulled out of the mall. Their minivan collided with a white Oldsmobile, whose driver had a suspended license, Florida Highway Patrol troopers said. The Oldsmobile was headed south on U.S. 19. A witness told the FHP that the minivan ran a red light, according to Trooper Douglas Guy. The FHP was not releasing any names Saturday evening. The elderly couple were flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Guy said. Two of the Oldsmobile's passengers were taken to North Bay Hospital, and a third was taken to Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point.

Rabid cat's bite leads officials on manhunt

THONOTOSASSA -- A Zephyrhills man is undergoing treatment for exposure to rabies after a cat bite at a state park led to a cross-continent manhunt for the victim while he vacationed in the wilds of Canada. Without knowing it, Harry Ostrander, 52, was exposed to rabies at Hillsborough River State Park near Tampa on July 15 when he was bitten by a stray kitten.

By the time health officials tested the animal and found it was positive for the virus, Ostrander was vacationing at a remote Ontario campsite.

Fearing that the incubation time for the potentially fatal disease was approaching, Ostrander's brother, park employees and local health officials began a frantic search.

Plane sucks bird into engine, returns to TIA

TAMPA -- A Delta 737 jet returned to Tampa International Airport shortly after takeoff Saturday afternoon because the pilot suspected a bird had been sucked into one of the plane's engines.

Delta flight 2522 was bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City with 119 passengers onboard, said airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan. Its pilot requested permission to return after reporting a bird had struck the No. 2 engine, she said.

The jet landed at 2:16 p.m. By 3:20 p.m., the airline had loaded the jet's passengers onto another aircraft bound for New York City, she said.

No one was injured.

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