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U.S. NEWS Friday 1 december 2017
Friend of Florida man accused in killings shocked by charges

the loose after three late- Seminole Heights and told list an attorney for Donald- both grew up in an upper-
night killings in October and investigators he was unfa- son, who appeared shack- middle class neighborhood
a fourth in November. But it miliar with the neighbor- led and wearing a blue of ranch homes.“He’s really
also left people puzzled as hood, giving no indication padded anti-suicide vest in the first friend I ever made
to why a young man from why it was singled out, po- a jail video linkup for Thurs- in my life,” Estevez said
a comfortable middle-class lice said. Though coopera- day’s court appearance. Thursday in a phone inter-
family could suddenly be- tive with officers, he also Estevez, 25, lives with his view.Attending elementary
come the suspect with ap- shed no light on a motive or parents around the cor- and middle school togeth-
parently little sign of some- why individual victims were ner from where Donaldson er, Estevez said, they built a
thing amiss. targeted, according to of- lived with his family. Friends friendship on a mutual love
Donaldson didn’t live in ficials. Arrest records didn’t since elementary school, of sports.q

This booking photo shows
Howell Emanuel Donaldson.
(Tampa PD via AP)

By TAMARA LUSH
Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The
last time Michael Estevez
saw Trai Donaldson, it was
sometime in October and
the two lifelong friends sat
watching ESPN in Estevez’s
Tampa home, discussing
the best basketball player
of all time.
Estevez said LeBron. Don-
aldson said Jordan.
“It was a friendly debate,”
recalled Estevez.
On Tuesday, Estevez got
a call from another friend.
Tampa Police were ques-
tioning Donaldson in a
string of deadly shootings
that had terrorized a Flor-
ida neighborhood since
Oct. 9.
Estevez was floored.
“You couldn’t write me a
check or give me ten mil-
lion in cash to say he possi-
bly did that,” he said Thurs-
day, the same day the man
he calls his “godbrother”
made his initial court ap-
pearance, charged with
four counts of first-degree
murder. “I can’t just call
him my friend, because
that doesn’t do justice.
God could not have made
us closer unless we were
blood brothers.”
Howell Emanuel Don-
aldson, 24, was arrested
Tuesday after he asked a
co-worker at a McDon-
ald’s restaurant to hold a
bag carrying a gun. The
co-worker looked inside,
spotted the weapon and
alerted a Tampa police
officer seated in the res-
taurant doing paperwork.
When Donaldson returned,
police were waiting.
The arrest brought im-
mense relief to Seminole
Heights, a working-class
neighborhood plunged
into fears of a serial killer on