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Father Shot Dead In Home Invasion

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 6, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - The owner of an auto body shop was killed in a home invasion Tuesday night as his wife and teenage daughter lay face down in the same room, St. Petersburg police said.

The shop and owner Vinson Phillips were at the center of St. Petersburg's 1996 race riots, when a police officer's tear gas canister set the business on fire.

On Tuesday night, Phillips, 46, was watching television in his bedroom when two armed men wearing black clothing and ski masks came in through a back door, said Sgt. Mike Kovacsev of the homicide squad.

Phillips' wife was also in the bedroom, and three of the couple's children - two boys, 10 and 12, and a girl, 15 - were in bed in other rooms of the house at 2227 33rd St. S.

After the men confronted the couple, their teenage daughter entered the bedroom, Kovacsev said. The mother and daughter were ordered to lie on the floor as Phillips rummaged through his belongings to give the intruders cash and valuables they demanded, Kovacsev said.

'At some point, he was shot multiple times,' Kovacsev said. 'I don't think he was moving fast enough.'

Phillips was pronounced dead at Bayfront Medical Center within an hour of the 11 p.m. shooting and robbery.

Phillips' auto body shop is at 18th Avenue South and 16th Street, where the first of two race riots broke out in 1996 after a white police officer shot a black teenager after a traffic stop.

After the second riot, on Nov. 13, the leader of a police SWAT team threw a tear gas canister over a fence after the team heard bullets whiz overhead. The shooting stopped, but the device set Phillips' repair shop ablaze and burned about 20 cars along with it.

Anyone with information about Tuesday's home invasion is asked to call Detective Ron Noodwang at (727) 892 5545.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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