Victims identified in Tampa shooting that killed two people on Nebraska Avenue

Two people killed in Friday’s shooting near a supermarket on Nebraska Avenue in Tampa have been identified.

According to an affidavit released Monday for Whitney Rashad Newsome, Newsome shot Fredrick J. Russell, 41, and Breanna L. Jones, 23, during an argument.

Officers responded around 10:30 a.m. to the 900 block of East 26th Avenue, east of Nebraska Avenue in Ybor Heights, and found Russell and Jones suffering from gunshot wounds, the affidavit said.

According to information previously released by police, Newsome, 37, got into an argument with a woman and then a man tried to intervene, at which point Newsome shot both of them. Newsome also shot at a second woman but did not hit her, police said.

Investigators obtained surveillance video that showed Newsome arguing with Russell outside a Kings Plaza convenience store on the southeast corner of Nebraska and East 26th Avenue. According to the affidavit, the video shows Newsome and Russell continuing to argue while driving east on 26th Avenue. Jones is also seen in the video with a second woman.

The Tampa Bay Times is not naming the second woman in this story because she is a witness to a murder.

The video shows Newsome shooting Jones and Russell, the affidavit says. After she is shot, the video shows Jones running to the front of the supermarket, where she collapses.

The second woman told police she saw Newsome pull a gun from his waistband and point it at Russell. The woman said Newsome shot at her and Russell as they tried to run to a nearby tree for safety. The woman said she saw Newsome shoot Russell as he ran into a field.

Newsome left the scene heading north on Ninth Street, the affidavit said.

Police found a handgun along the route Newsome was believed to have taken. He was found and arrested Saturday morning near the corner of East 25th Avenue and North 33rd Street.

Police said Newsome and the three people he shot knew each other. A police spokesman said Monday that how they knew each other and what Newsome and Jones were arguing about was still under investigation.

Newsome was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated assault and one count of illegal possession of a firearm as a felon. Prosecutors have filed a motion to hold him without bail until his case is resolved. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

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The affidavit states that Newsome is a six-time felon. Records show he has been arrested more than 30 times in Hillsborough County since 2006.

He served 17 months in state prison after being convicted of aggravated assault on a pregnant woman in 2011. In 2014, he was convicted of assault and false imprisonment in Hillsborough and sentenced to 210 days in county jail, records show.

In 2020, he went to a former girlfriend’s house, pushed her, pulled out a gun, told her he was going to kill her and fired a bullet in the air, an affidavit said. Prosecutors dropped the aggravated assault charge, he pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to time in the county jail.

Most recently, Newsome was charged with two counts of violent crime earlier this year, but the charges were dropped.

In February, he was arrested on a battery charge after police found he hit his brother in the head and struck him in the throat with an umbrella, an affidavit said. The Hillsborough District Attorney’s Office did not pursue the case because Newsome’s brother did not respond to prosecutors’ efforts to reach him and there was no other admissible evidence to support the charge, records show. He was released from prison on March 8.

A day later, Newsome beat and choked a man, according to police.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, a man said he was sleeping in an alley in the 900 block of 25th Avenue on March 9 – a block south of where Friday’s shooting occurred – when Newsome hit him with a wrench hit his head and strangled him with a necklace the man was wearing. The man said he escaped by hitting Newsome with a brick. The man was taken to the hospital and received staples in his head.

Police obtained a warrant for Newsome’s arrest on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but prosecutors filed a release letter on April 12, noting that while there was probable cause to arrest him, prosecutors would not do so be able to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.