SUNDAY TELEGRAPH London April 24th, 2011...The teenage gunman charged with murdering two British tourists in Florida is linked to a notorious street gang that terrorised the Sarasota neighbourhood for two years.
The nickname Young Savage tattooed across the chest of Shawn Tyson ties him to leaders of the Second Line gang, DeAndre Tunstall, that operated in the Newtown district of Sarasota where the Britons were shot dead, according to a local crime investigator Bill Warner.
The revelation of Tyson's apparent gang association will fuel anger over the blunders by prosecutors that led to his release from custody charged with an earlier gun attack just hours before James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, were killed. It will add to suggestions of a pattern of troubled and sometimes violent behaviour by Tyson, well before the incident for which he was arrested earlier this month.
It will also raise fresh suspicions of accomplices to the botched attempted robbery of the two young Britons, whose bodies were found 40 yards apart after shots rang out in the small hours of the morning. Now it has emerged that the tattoo emblazoned on his chest links him to the feared "enforcer" of the Second Line gang, DeAndre Tunstall, responsible for a string of robberies and murders in the Newtown district that includes The Courts.
The Sunday Telegraph has established that the same words, Young Savage, are inked on the forearm of DeAndre Tunstall, jailed for murder in November after a police crackdown on the gang's leadership.
A police spokesman said that Tyson was a not a known gang member. But veteran Sarasota private detective Bill Warner, who has for years investigated fraud in Newtown, said that Tyson was among young thugs coming to the fore since the arrest of Second Line leaders. "These tattoos are gang tags that identify these hoodlums when they are operating on the street and also when they inevitably end up in prison," Bill Warner said.
"Tyson would never have had the nerve to tattoo 'Young Savage' across his chest, where everyone can see, if it he wasn't associated with the gang. The tattoo is a gang identification and it's a tribute to Tunstall. This kid had increasingly shown that he liked to fight and was willing to pull the trigger. He was showing how tough he was. He was graduating, Bill Warner said." Tyson's family background was always troubled. When he was younger, his father was sentenced to two years in prison for aggravated assault with a weapon, and neighbours said a step-father had also served jail time.
The revelation of Tyson's apparent gang association will fuel anger over the blunders by prosecutors that led to his release from custody charged with an earlier gun attack just hours before James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, were killed. It will add to suggestions of a pattern of troubled and sometimes violent behaviour by Tyson, well before the incident for which he was arrested earlier this month.It will also raise fresh suspicions of accomplices to the botched attempted robbery of the two young Britons, whose bodies were found 40 yards apart after shots rang out in the small hours of the morning.
In a country where the car is king, detectives did not at first even contemplate that the men might have walked, though they are now considering the possibility that they set out on foot to a 24-hour diner, but took a wrong turning. Mr Warner believes another scenario rings true. "I think they were somehow lured there, maybe by a woman – remember they'd been chatting up girls in the bars. And the idea there was to rob them but something went badly wrong." Nobody supposes that Tyson, a boy with learning difficulties, too young to drive or drink in a bar, would have orchestrated any plot or ambush.
When The Sunday Telegraph visited The Courts last week, teenage "spotters" patrolling on bicycles circled past constantly (SEE SURVEILLANCE PHOTO BELOW), monitoring the movements of strangers and passing the details by mobile phone. In just five minutes' drive the affluent city centre gave way to boarded-up trailer homes and concrete block houses with small barred windows. MORE FROM THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH...
SUNDAY MERCURY UK, April 24th, 2011...New gang links to US murders of Warwickshire friends James Cooper and James Kouzaris. So far US cops have refused to comment on claims suspect that Tyson may have had gang affiliations. But the Sunday Mercury has learned of links between the teen and a notorious street gang called Second Line, whose members are suspected of up to 12 recent murders.
Robbery is a likely explanation for the murders and although cash was found on their bodies, witnesses say they had been lured into an ambush by masked gunmen. Second Line gangsters have been suspects, charged or convicted in at least eight murders in Newtown and linked to four more in recent years. The gang is now so feared that many residents have stopped wearing jewellery in public for fear of being robbed. Members regularly roam the tough Newtown neighbourhood at night, just miles from multi-million dollar beachfront homes.
Second Line became notorious for ambush robberies in which they would wear ski masks and brandish semi-automatic weapons. Gang leader Deandre ‘Young Savage’ Tunstall, 21, is currently serving life after the brutal murder of an off-duty American Marine in 2008. He had donned a ski mask and attempted to carjack Iraq veteran Delvis Fernandez at gunpoint, while he filled up his car at a petrol station. But the brave marine, 21, fought back and was killed in the ensuing struggle. Police had hoped the gang leader’s conviction might ease street violence but the killing of the two Brits bears all the hallmarks of a Second Line robbery.
Eyewitness reports have added weight to the theory. Sonja Seymour, who lives on the street where the men were found, said: “I heard that when they arrived here there were already some people waiting for them. They were wearing masks. Another factor which highlights possible gang involvement is that Shawn Tyson has a ‘Young Savage’ tattoo – the street name of Deandre Tunstall.
Local crime reporter Anthony Cormier, Sarasota Herald Tribune, has covered the Newtown area for the past few years. He told the Sunday Mercury: “The Newtown neighbourhood of Sarasota is the poorest, hardest, most notorious part of the city. “While it can be a vibrant community where weekend barbecues and church revivals are the norm, it has also been plagued by gun and gang violence in recent years. “There was an awful gang problem in Newtown in 2008 and 2009. Police detectives say that the pinching of Second Line eased many of the problems, but certainly not all of them.
“It is unclear if Shawn Tyson is associated with a gang, although he is known on the street as Young Savage and usually ran with a crew of boys who hang out in The Courts housing project.” MORE FROM THIS SOURCE....
‘It’s Newtown. You hear everything (and say nothing).’ Anthony Cormier, Sarasota Herald Tribune. I don’t know if this means everything or not: On Saturday, I was over near The Courts in Newtown looking for a guy who knew a guy who was involved in a deadly shooting.
A tan Caprice followed me. From King to Osprey to 21st and over to The Courts, slowing at stop signs until he rolled down his window and smiled. “What you need?” he asked. “Not looking,” I said. “I’m reporter.” “Oh, oh, oh … you’re out here hustling like me.” “Something like that. You know there was a shooting?”
“I heard. It’s Newtown. You hear everything.” “About 100 people saw it.” “But won’t nobody talk about it,” he said, still smiling and rolling the window back up and heading left on 21st Street, away from The Courts. ("NO SNITCHIN" in Newtown).
Bill Warner Private Investigator Sarasota Fl website at www.wbipi.com
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