ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's usually a quiet St. Petersburg neighborhood where kids play in the street and residents tend to their lawns, but the silence was shattered when more than a dozen bullets pierced the humid Florida air.
The shootout was captured on multiple home surveillance videos.
Another angle captured a gunman hanging out of the car window.
A witness we identify only as "Lisa" described the mayhem unfolding feet from her front door.
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska interviewed St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway. Holloway said a lot of these guns are used by teens and are stolen out of unlocked vehicles.
According to statistics provided by St. Pete PD, 251 guns were stolen in 2023. Of those, 173 were taken from a vehicle, 74 from a building, and four from a person. Police recovered 102 of the stolen weapons. This year, from Jan. to July, 103 weapons were taken from a vehicle, 28 from a building, and 50 from a person.
Chief Holloway tells Paluska they are working hard to reach at-risk kids.
Holloway told Paluska that they are tracking down leads and potential suspects thanks to the surveillance videos.
A Hardee County grandmother is on trial this week for leaving her 7-month-old granddaughter in a hot car where the baby died —the second grandchild to die under Tracey Nix's care. ABC Action News I-Team Reporter Kylie McGivern sat down with Kaila Nix just days ahead of her mother's trial for aggravated manslaughter.
