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Suspect In St. Pete Girl's Death Says He Wasn't Shooter

By YOLANDA FERNANDEZ | News Channel 8
and NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune
and CHIP OSOWSKI | News Channel 8

Published: April 6, 2009

Updated: 04/06/2009 02:49 pm

Related Links

Paris Whitehead-Hamilton

Stephan Harper

ST. PETERSBURG - Police are searching for three more suspects in the shooting Sunday morning that left an 8-year-old girl dead in her bullet-riddled home and are running tests on weapons seized that night.

St. Petersburg Police Department spokesman Bill Proffit said the assault rifles and other weapons police found when they arrested Stephen C. Harper on Sunday night will be checked for fingerprints and other clues.

Profitt said investigators have identified the suspects but did not release their names. Tips police have received from the community have aided the investigation, he said.

Harper, who is in the Pinellas County Jail facing a first-degree murder charge, told his sister he was there but did not pull the trigger.

"My brother is not a killer," said Lecia Simmons, Harper's sister. She has spoken with him several times since his arrest.

She said Harper was in the back seat of a car that drove by the home of Paris Whitehead-Hamilton about 2:20 a.m. Sunday. Police said 50 rounds or more from an assault rifle were fired at the house at 771 Preston Ave. S.

At least one of those shots hit Paris, possibly as she fled her bedroom at the front of the house after the gunfire started. She died Sunday morning at Bayfront Medical Center.

Simmons said her brother is not part of an organized gang and that the shooting was part of an feud between the Bethel Heights neighborhood where Harper and his siblings live and the Harbordale neighborhood where the shooting took place.

Harper, who has a 5-month-old son, is very upset and feels badly for the family of Paris, Simmons said.

Proffitt said Harper gave statements to investigators that he was actively involved in planning the drive-by shooting and was in the car, though he may not have wielded a gun.

Students today at the small charter school Paris attended were dealing with the shocking death of their classmate. Grief counselors were on hand at Imagine School of St. Petersburg, a charter elementary in its first year.

Principal Dawn Wilson said counselors will be there to help about 360 students at the school cope with Paris's death. Wilson said because the school is small, students in all grades know each other.

"School wide, it's going to be felt without a doubt," Wilson said. "We're grieving the loss of a precious young girl."

The principal described Paris as a well-behaved girl.

"She was a sweetheart, you know. She was just one of those strait-laced little girls," Wilson said.

On Sunday night, St. Petersburg police arrested Harper, 803 15th St. S, Apt. E-106. Police say Harper planned and participated in the drive-by shooting and was booked in the Pinellas County Jail after being questioned for several hours.

Detectives are seeking additional suspects.

Police seized three assault rifles, two shotguns and a bulletproof vest from an apartment at 711 15th St. S. Some of the weapons may have been used in the shooting. They also located the car believed to have been used.

St. Petersburg Police Chief Charles Harmon said on Sunday it appeared the barrage of gunfire at the house came from an assault rifle. Paris was the only one injured among nine people in the house.

After Paris' mother died three years ago, an aunt took custody of the girl. The aunt, Shenita Joseph, bought Paris something new every week, neighbor Jacquelyn Fleming said.

Joseph, 42, was among those in the house when the shooting occurred.

Reporter Yolanda Fernandez can be reached at (813) 225-2746. Reporter Chip Osowski can be reached at (813) 221-5708.

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