Newly released court documents revealed alarming new details of what led to a mass shooting that killed two people and injured 16 others in Ybor City over the weekend.
The documents, which were acquired by WFLA, detailed the events that led to the arrest of 22-year-old Tyrell Stephen Phillips, who was one of the suspects involved in the Sunday morning shooting.
According to a criminal report affidavit, shortly after 2:45 a.m. Sunday, officers who were already in Ybor City’s Entertainment District heard several gunshots coming from 7th Avenue.
According to Tampa Police, there were approximately 50 officers on the scene at the time of the shooting.
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Police said that the shooting happened after two groups got into fight during a Halloween party in the 1600 block of East 7th Avenue.
“It was a disturbance or a fight between two groups. And in this fight between two groups we had hundreds of innocent people involved that were in the way,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said during a press conference at the scene.
Among the victims, police found the body of a 14-year-old boy, who was later identified by relatives as Elijah Jaquan Wilson.
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According to WFLA, officers also found 20-year-old Harrison Boonstoppel who died from his injuries after being taken to Tampa General Hospital.
Phillips surrendered himself voluntarily to police at the scene and admitted to being one of the shooters. In his front waistband, police said they found a Glock 29 10mm semi-automatic firearm with 11 rounds still in it, the affidavit said.
A homicide detective who wrote the affidavit said he interviewed Phillips, who said he was his with a group of friends when he saw a woman who went to middle school with him.
“As he was waving at this female, he was approached by what he estimated to be 6 [redacted],” the affidavit said. “He advised these [redacted] approached him in an aggressive manner.”
Phillips told police that one of the individuals took a fighting stance while another spit at him, according to the document. He also claimed that a third person appeared to be reaching for a weapon from his waistband, but police said Phillips told them he never actually saw a firearm.
“The defendant stated the group continued to approach him and he was in fear, so he retrieved his Glock firearm and discharged it,” the affidavit said. “The defendant stated he did not fire the gun towards a particular person, but just the entire opposing group. The defendant estimated he fired two rounds. Once he fired his gun, he ran away from the scene towards the north and stated he heard additional gunfire from behind him.”
The affidavit said the teen victim was part of the group, but the detective said while videos of the shooting showed Wilson approaching Phillips in an “agitated manner,” the teen had his arms raised away from his waist.
“Simultaneously, as victim 1 is lowering hands, the defendant appears to retrieve his firearm from his waist area and fires the firearm in the direction of victim 1 which caused victim 1 to instantly fall to the ground,” the affidavit said.
According to the document, Phillips was shown the video and said the 14-year-old was the one who spat at him, not the one he saw reaching for the firearm.
Recovered cellphone video and the defendant’s statement confirmed that the 14-year-old did not pull out his gun at any time, according to police.
A pretrial motion, filed by State Attorney Suzy Lopez, called Phillips a threat to the community and asked that he be subject to pretrial detention.
As of this report, Tampa police said they are still looking for two other shooters in this case.
