‘Very Dangerous’ Former Marine In Florida Accused Of Targeting, Killing Man Beneath Underpass
A former U.S. Marine in Florida was arrested in connection with the murder of a man found shot underneath an overpass, authorities said.
Police in Tampa took Timothy Scott McGovern, 29, into custody on Nov. 8 and charged him with the first-degree premeditated murder of a man in his late 30s, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
According to Tampa Police Chief Mary O’Connor, McGovern targeted and killed the victim, who he knew, around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 6.
McGovern allegedly “admitted to having previous encounters with the homicide victim [and] walking to the underpass on the night of the murder setting out to take the victim’s life with [a] gun,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor claimed McGovern has a history of mental issues and was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Marines in 2014 over a narcotics arrest.
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Detectives were able to identify McGovern as a suspect in the case after connecting 9mm bullet casings found at the crime scene to casings of the same caliber recovered following a separate shooting incident around four hours earlier, police said.
In that case, officers responded to the report of shots fired. A female witness told police a man, later identified through surveillance video as McGovern, approached her and a friend.
“He said, ‘There is my target,’ pulled out a gun from his waistband and started firing the gun into the water,” O’Connor said. “While the witness and her friends ran from the area in fear for their life, McGovern continued to fire this gun into the water.”
After McGovern’s arrest, he allegedly told detectives he was responsible for stabbing the shooting victim last July, officials said.
According to O’Connor, detectives said the suspect had in his possession “a litany of manifestos” containing “disturbing” writings.
“The efficient, quickly coordinated police work across all aspects of the entire Tampa Police Department made our community safer by getting this very, very dangerous individual off the street very quickly,” O’Connor said.
McGovern was being held without bail in the Hillsborough County jail.
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