A 24-year-old arrested in a connection to string of deadly shootings in a Tampa neighborhood will make his first court appearance Thursday.
Howell Emanuel Donaldson was arrested Tuesday after asking a co-worker at McDonald's to hold a bag carrying a gun. When the co-worker spotted the weapon in the bag, they approached a Tampa police officer who was in the restaurant. When Donaldson returned to the McDonald's, police were waiting.
Donaldson now faces four counts of first-degree murder.
An arrest report said police found clothing inside Donaldson's car that was similar to what was worn by a person spotted in surveillance video taken the night of the first shooting.
A search of Donaldson's cellphone also allegedly uncovered location data that indicated three days of recorded times and activities corresponding with the first three shootings on Oct. 9, Oct. 11 and Oct. 19.
The casings in the fourth homicide weren't available for comparison, the report said, but had been previously identified as being fired from the same firearm as the first three.