TAMPA, FLA. (WSVN) - The gunman suspected of murdering four people in Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood eluded officers for two months. In the end, it all came down to a gun inside a McDonald’s bag.
Howell Donaldson III, a former employee at the fast food restaurant in Ybor City, handed the bag to a worker Tuesday, saying he was planning to leave the state. When the worker opened the bag, she found a .40-caliber Glock handgun inside, Fox 13 reports.
That worker, later identified as the restaurant’s general manager Delonda Walker, approached an officer who happened to be inside at the time doing paperwork.
After backup arrived, police took Donaldson in for questioning, eventually charging him with all four murders.
The gun and ammunition matched the weapon used in the shooting deaths of four people.
“That was the bit of information we were looking for. That’s what we needed,” Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said. “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 this bag?’”
It was not immediately clear if Walker would actually be eligible to receive the $110,000 reward from Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay, since she did not call the tip line.
When asked about the reward money, Dugan said, “We are going to sift through everything and see what rewards would be appropriate.”
But one of the reward donors did not want to wait.
Richard Gonzmart, the owner of the Columbia Restaurant Group, had pledged $9,000 toward the Crimestoppers reward. He stopped by the McDonald’s Thursday to personally drop off a check for Walker.
“We got this monster off the street because of her,” said Richard Gonzmart, who had pledged $9,000 toward the reward. “It took a lot of courage for her to call Tampa Police, and I don’t think she did it for a reward. That’s what makes it even more special. She was just doing what was right and that’s to be recognized.”
He continued, “She doesn’t look at herself as a hero… She’s a hero in my eyes.”
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