Fugitive turns self in to police

After 14 months, police have no explanation why Tuan Anh Do gave up hiding.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 17, 1999

ST. PETERSBURG -- One night nearly 14 months ago, the peaceful Meadowlawn neighborhood suddenly sounded like a war.

Police say a teenager in a bulletproof vest stood in a front yard firing rounds from a Chinese version of an AK-47 rifle. He wounded three members of a rival gang. Then he disappeared -- until now.

"He just showed up. He basically said he was tired of running," police Maj. Tom Gavin said Wednesday.

Tuan Anh Do, now 20 years old, turned himself in and is being held without bail in the Pinellas County Jail. He is charged with aggravated battery, shooting into a vehicle and violating his probation.

He is the final person to be arrested in an April 1998 gang fight that stunned neighbors on an innocuous residential street in north St. Petersburg.

Police say an argument over one gang member's girlfriend sparked the fight. The rival gangs confronted each other outside 7130 Meadowlawn Drive.

About 8:30 on a Tuesday night, a group of teens with baseball bats drove to the house in three cars. Police say a second group of teens then stormed out of the house, shouting and firing guns.

Three youths in the cars were shot in the back, shoulder and foot. All survived.

Police confiscated the Chinese gun from inside the house. The police department's gang intelligence team searched for the 19-year-old accused of firing it.

"We worked it extensively, but we couldn't find him," said Gavin, head of the department's youth resources division. "We're sure he left the area. Where he went, we don't know."

As a rule, St. Petersburg police don't talk about specific gang names or their distinguishing features, saying they don't want to glamorize membership.

At the time, the groups involved in the shooting were described as two of about a dozen gangs in the city. It would be difficult to say whether the same groups have caused trouble since then, police said.

"A lot of gang membership changes. It's very fluid," Gavin said. "Gang activity is generally down compared to last year."

Two other youths were arrested after the fight but were never prosecuted.

Craig Steven Young, then 20, was charged with three counts of attempted homicide because police said he drove the shooter from the scene. The charges were later dropped.

Michael McKeever, then 17, of 7130 Meadowlawn Drive, was arrested because police said he obstructed the investigation by hiding the Chinese weapon in his house. Those charges were dropped. McKeever's parents said he was the one who called police.

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