TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Police held their latest Town Hall event Tuesday night in Ybor City.
A crowd gathered inside the Centro Asturiano de Tampa, not far from where two people were killed and 16 others injured in a shooting last month.
Chief Lee Bercaw said the goal was to hear suggestions about how the community and law enforcement can work together to make Ybor safer.
Bercaw began the meeting by calling the shooting tragic and again stressing it was an isolated incident, but a number of people who spoke said violence is all too common in the historic district.
"Every five years, there's blood in the street. There's a homicide,” said Eric Schiller, owner of Gaspar’s Grotto on East Seventh Avenue. It’s the same street where the shooting took place.
Police heard from some residents whose lives were forever changed by violence in Ybor City. Dionne Neal was one of them.
"We affectionately called him, Dyante, 'Tay Tay.' I don't want to see another Tay Tay,” Neal told police.
Her son was 25 years old when he died in 2019 after getting punched and then hitting his head on the pavement. It happened in the early morning hours in Ybor.
"The guy that killed my son, when we looked up his receipt, it was $1,500 within two hours,” Neal said. “So, I know we're all here to make money. Everybody's trying to get a dollar, there's bars, but we need to somehow figure out where your tab shouldn't be $1,500."
Schiller said he wants to see police keep East Seventh Avenue open when the bars and clubs close, rather than closing it to traffic.
"Those kids have no money, they have no IDs, they can't get in, they have nothing else to do, they party in the street,” Schiller said. "You have to leave the streets open."
Bercaw said it’s an issue the department has considered.
"I'm gonna leave it open as long as possible, but there is some point where the safety of people that are coming out of the clubs, the sidewalks can't handle that. So, we have to have the streets clear for them,” he said.
Stanley Gray, president and CEO of the Urban League of Hillsborough County, told Spectrum News the group’s office is a short distance from the shooting scene.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t surprised,” Gray said when asked for his reaction to the shooting. “The reason why I say that is that we’re actually loosening up our laws and regulations towards gun care.”
Stanley was one of a few attendees who said they think state and federal lawmakers will need to enact stricter gun control laws in order for communities like Ybor City to see a change.
"You're talking to a person who does carry, and I believe that we need to have stricter gun laws,” he said. “Then, I think once we have that and we also have things, you know — jobs, purpose and things for people to do, which will increase their hope and accountability, I think that we'll have less crime."
Bercaw said TPD will take what it heard from residents into consideration when it comes to future steps to improve safety in Ybor City.
Police are still asking the public for tips in the Oct. 29 shooting. Anyone with information can submit it here: https://tips.fbi.gov/digitalmedia/ba97a83d927f1d4.