By Matt Wiley
Details have emerged and an arrest has been made in the shooting death of a Pasco County man who was shot in his car while driving on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in May.
According to the Tampa Police Department (TPD), Demetrio Earle, 27, of Tampa, was arrested around 3:45 p.m. on August 2, following an investigation into the May 31 death of 20-year-old Reggie Adams.
TPD reports that around 3:30 p.m. on May 31, Earle met Adams and a passenger, Eddy Lee, in the parking lot of the McDonald’s, located in the New Tampa Center shopping plaza at BBD just north of Cross Creek Blvd., to sell an unknown item. At some point during the sale inside the black Dodge Magnum, an altercation occurred and Earle jumped from the vehicle as it backed out of the parking lot.
The report says that Earle got into his own vehicle and chased the victims south on BBD and began firing a gun into the vehicle near I-75. Lee was struck in the arm and Adams was fatally shot in the chest. Adams was dropped off at Pasco Regional Medical Center nearly two hours later, where he died. Adams, who lived in Texas, had been in town visiting family.
Earle is being held without bond on charges of second-degree murder with a firearm, attempted second-degree murder with a firearm and shooting into an occupied vehicle.
No additional information was available at our press time.
