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Gulfport Police Hope Fingerprints Lead Them To Robbers

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By YOLANDA FERNANDEZ | News Channel 8

Published: December 24, 2008

Fingerprints found after a violent convenience store robbery in Gulfport may help police.

Monday night, three men entered the Joy Foodsmart on 49th Street South and shot two clerks -- an uncle and the father of three boys who were in the store during the robbery.

Both men survived, although one remains in critical condition.

Even partial fingerprints can yield DNA evidence, said Lt. Robert Vincent, acting chief of the Gulfport Police Department.

"We're going to fast-track processing of DNA evidence that was collected from areas we know the suspects touched," Vincent said.

Investigators don't want to wait the usual two months for results from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratory, so the department will pay extra to process the tests through another laboratory and have results within three weeks.

Detectives are following up on a dozen or so anonymous tips from the community, but they have identified no suspects.

This is the third violent convenient store robbery in south Pinellas County this month. On Dec. 1 and 4, two brothers working at their separate St. Petersburg stores were shot during robberies.

St. Petersburg and Gulfport detectives are comparing notes, but they don't think the crimes are connected. "At this juncture we don't believe so, given the fact the type of weapon that was used, the number of suspects and clothing descriptions all differ," said Bill Proffitt of the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Longtime Foodsmart customer Marc Ortiz was upset when he heard of the robbery. "This ain't the 'hood. This is a pretty good neighborhood, and for somebody to be irresponsible like that and take out a family man, you know what I'm saying, that's wrong."

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