St. Petersburg police correct shooting victim's ID as questions linger

ST. PETERSBURG -- Police have corrected the identity of the victim who was shot at his 4640 Ninth Ave. N home. He is 33-year-old Jermaine Ross.

In 2006, Ross, left, was arrested on cocaine trafficking according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office website. He was also arrested in 2007 for driving with a license suspended or revoked.

Ross told police investigators he had been living under the alias of Ramon Flournoy to avoid a felony warrant for his arrest on the driver's license charge. He is at Bayfront Medical Center, recovering from surgery for the gunshot wound.

Meanwhile, Ross's neighborhood is still shaken and police have yet to solve a shooting case that set off a dramatic series of events Wednesday morning, including an hours-long SWAT team standoff.

Three suspects who police say robbed a man and then shot him in the back have not been found. But other questions about the incident remain, and police have provided few answers.

Among the unsettling details:

• Police say the suspects -- or one suspect -- ran into a home at 4514 Ninth Ave. N, which they surrounded with high-powered weapons and barricades. The nine people inside -- mostly women and children -- were evacuated but none of the suspects were found in the house.
• Two people, one of whom was a 14-year-old girl, were handcuffed as they exited the house. Profitt explained this was SWAT team protocol until the people could be identified.
• Although the nine people were "cooperative and polite," Proffitt said, they gave conflicting reports about whether someone was ever in the house. "One of the kids said someone was hiding in the crawl space," Proffitt said. But others in the house said no one was ever there.
• A canine patrol unit picked up the scent of the suspects and tracked it directly to the house, and the K9 officer saw someone crouching at a window. "He wasn't just meandering around the neighborhood," Proffitt said. "The dog was on a track."

When the nine people emerged, none looked like the guy the canine patrol officer saw, Proffitt said. The suspect  could have slipped out the back door between the time the scent was tracked and the time the house was secured by backup police -- a span of a few minutes. April Curry, who lives in the house, thought the suspects may have run through the yard because some rakes were tipped over. No, police say, the scent was in the house.

No one could be reached at the home this morning, and police have not released descriptions of the suspects.

Nearby residents who are concerned about their neighborhood want to know more.

"I am really worried," said Marissa Henrikson, who lives a couple blocks away from where the shooting happened. "I really don't feel safe."

Henrikson, a 20-year-old teacher's assistant at Seminole United Methodist preschool, said the most unnerving thing is the lack of solid descriptions of the suspects.

Loud parties are on the rise and more teens hanging out in the alleys, she said. She said she believes there has been drug activity as well.

"It's just ridiculous," she said. "In the last year, it's really gone downhill."

Emily Nipps and Kameel Stanley, Times staff writers

Comments

[taxpaying gal]

This is just soooooo funny....

[matt goldman]

Just because they were polite and cooperative doesn't mean they were honest. A lesson for the Uhurus: polite and confusing is better for evading arrest than obstinate and confrontational. Maybe a debt was being collected and they'll get a discount for running interference?

[oscar]

Tomorrow is Friday & it's time to take out the garbage. It's spreading all over the city!

[NMP]

The trash is moving north thanks to the desperation of those who bought homes hoping to flip them and make a quick buck. The housing bubble burst, no homes are selling, so now they rent to just anybody not giving a crap about the neighborhood that they live in. Sickening. I'm just as frustrated at the police for not saying much of anything about this to the residents who live nearby. Inexcusable.