TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa police announced three arrests Monday in a 2021 homicide.
Back on Sept. 10, officers were dispatched to a shooting on North 17th Street near East 19th Avenue. Emergency crews found a man with gunshot wounds and took him to a hospital, where he died.
In the months since, homicide detectives say they established enough probable cause to arrest three men. Police identified them as 25-year-old Gavin Alexander Wolden of Wesley Chapel, 23-year-old Benjamin Aakeem Smiley of Zephyrhills and 23-year-old Israel Montanez of Tampa.
"Through investigation, it was learned that the defendants and the victim all
knew each other, and this was not a random act," the Tampa Police Department wrote in an email. "The three defendants arrested began physically assaulting the victim, who was in his vehicle at the time. This escalated to shots being fired and the victim being killed."
The three men were charged with first-degree murder and burglary of a conveyance with the intent to commit a battery.
Authorities say Wolden was already in prison on other charges at the time of this new arrest. He faces an added charge of tampering with physical evidence.
