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March Will Mark Holiday Lakes' Triumph Over Drugs, Gangs, Guns

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2007

HOLIDAY - The concept of rallying a community through an event featuring free food, children's activities and live entertainment is nothing new. So in some respects, today's Freedom March of Holiday Lakes Estates isn't unusual.

Consider the community's recent history of gun violence, though, and the event's significance is clearer.

A string of shootings that frightened the community's residents this summer seems to have ended in August, after one suspected shooter died and another was arrested, said Doug Tobin, a spokesman with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

"We believe a gang was coming up from Pinellas Park and there was some kind of turf war," Tobin said. "It was terrorizing the citizens in this neighborhood."

Today's march was organized by the sheriff's office, Paul R. Smith Middle School, two Holiday Lakes Estates civic associations, Gulfside Elementary School and Calvary Chapel Worship Center.

The free event starts at 9:30 a.m. at Paul R. Smith Middle on Sweetbriar Drive in Holiday.

The event, which features an Ident-A-Kid station, self-defense instruction, a car-trunk escape station and several speakers, including Sheriff Bob White and other local politicians, was the idea of Jim Dermer, the sheriff's school resource officer at Paul R. Smith Middle.

Dermer said it is important to show children in the area that there are more "good people" in the area than bad.

Chris Dunning, principal at Paul R. Smith, said the shootings frightened some families so badly that they moved into a hotel. He said 300 to 500 people are expected to attend the march.

"It's turning into a really nice event," he said. "We're making a stand against drugs and gangs. We hope to get a Crime Watch established in Holiday Lakes East and West and the sheriff's office has been working with us.

"We hope to show the community that by banding together they can get the neighborhood back where it needs to be."

According to Tobin, the shootings ended after the arrest of suspected gang member Ryan Joseph Antonucci, 19, of Pinellas Park, who was apprehended in Pinellas County on Aug. 30, and the drug-related Aug. 20 death of suspected gunman Robert Elias Maniatis, 20.

Antonucci was transferred to the Land O' Lakes Jail on Thursday, where he was charged with aggravated assault and shooting at, within or into a building; bail was set at $120,000. He is accused of threatening a person with a gun and firing a gun into a Holiday Lakes Estates home on Aug. 18 or 19.

Antonucci also faces a felony drug charge and a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief in Pinellas, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.

Maniatis lived with his mother at the Merita Drive home Antonucci is accused of shooting into. Maniatis was later found dead at the Tahitian Resort, a motel on U.S. 19 in Pasco. The death was ruled a suicide, Tobin said.

According to the Pasco sheriff's office, Maniatis was a suspect in several shootings near his Holiday Lakes Estates home.

He also was a "person of interest" in the Aug. 20 slaying of Michael Scott Steele, 25, outside the Riverside apartment complex in Tarpon Springs, the city's police department said.

On Aug. 5, Maniatis was arrested by Pasco deputies and charged with aggravated assault. In that case, he was accused of pointing a MAC-11 semiautomatic firearm at a group of people who lived near him in Holiday Lakes Estates.

The victims told investigators that Maniatis had threatened numerous times to "shoot up" their residence.

"Since Maniatis died and Antonucci was arrested, things have quieted down quite a bit in Holiday Lakes Estates," Tobin said. "With the help of citizens who live there, we were able to make in-roads and arrests. When citizens get involved we can defend our communities and take back our streets."

Researcher Buddy Jaudon contributed to this report. Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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