httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqwUl_1LmgY
The suspect in the serial killings spanning a 51-day period that terrorized a Tampa neighborhood used the same gun in four killings, but had “No apparent motive,” the city’s top law enforcement official said Wednesday.
The suspect, 24-year-old Howell Emanuel Donaldson III, admitted he owned the gun that was turned over to police Tuesday and that cracked the case, but did not admit to the killings, Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said at a news conference.
Donaldson was arrested at a McDonald’s in Ybor City based on a tip given to Tampa police after he brought the loaded gun to his job at the restaurant and asked a co-worker to hold it.
The employee then told her manager about the gun, who alerted a Tampa police officer at a table in the restaurant, according to an arrest report.
“The person who called us, I cannot thank them enough for standing up and doing the right thing and saying ‘this doesn’t seem right, why does this person have a gun in a bag?'” Dugan told reporters.
The police chief said the gun, a.40-caliber Glock, was the missing evidence authorities needed to connect the killings to the images previously released from surveillance video of the suspect leaving the area.
“The gun is what we needed,” Dugan said at a news conference surrounded by family members of the victims.
“I don’t think he wanted to get caught,” Dugan said, adding that Donaldson gave the gun to his co-worker at McDonald’s for “Safe keeping.” He allegedly told the co-worker that he wanted to leave the state, FOX 13 Tampa reported.