Woman's Slaying Sparks Outrage

ST. PETERSBURG - Cynthia Woods lost her son to gunfire three years ago. On Friday, her life was touched by violence again when an unknown gunman shot and killed her daughter-in-law as she slept in a car near the shore of Lake Maggiore.

Police identified the victim as Angela Burgess, 32, of St. Petersburg. The mother of four died at the scene from multiple gunshots, the 13th homicide in the city this year.

Police said the pre-dawn shooting appears to be unprovoked.

"You see it more and more in the neighborhood," Woods, 49, said softly at the crime scene. "I feel the police need to do more to get the guns off the street. When every time you turn around, someone you know personally is getting killed, it's just like a way of life. That's sad."

Burgess was sleeping in a car in the 2800 block of Pallanza Drive South about 5:15 a.m. while she waited for an acquaintance to finish fishing on the northeast edge of the 385-acre lake, said Bill Proffitt, St. Petersburg police spokesman.

The acquaintance, whose identity was not released because the shooter had not been arrested, told police he had been fishing all night. He said a car dropped off Burgess about 4 a.m., an hour before the shooting. She climbed into his car to wait for him to finish fishing so he could drive her home, Proffitt said.

Investigators said that about 5 a.m., a man carrying a high-powered, semiautomatic rifle walked to the area from between houses on the south side of Pallanza. The shooter fired several rounds at the fisherman, who was wounded and dove into the lake. More shots were aimed at the vehicle.

A bullet pierced the front passenger door, and the passenger-side window was shattered, Proffitt said.

"We believe the woman might have been the primary target in the shooting and that perhaps the fisherman simply was not in the right place at the right time," Proffitt said.

The man fishing was struck in the lower body and also may have injured a shoulder. He was treated at Bayfront Medical Center and released. He later returned to the scene in hospital garb to recount the tale.

The shooter fled to the south-southwest, possibly to a waiting vehicle. Police had not identified him and said they did not have a good description or a motive.

Residents of the normally quiet lakeside neighborhood of masonry, ranch-style homes said they heard several shots fired in rapid succession.

Family members and friends gathered near the shooting scene, holding each other or crying on their cell phones. Some shouted in disbelief that Burgess had been killed.

One woman repeatedly cried "No! No! No! No!" as she pounded her hands on a brick column in front of a house. A young man, thought to be one of Burgess' sons, punched a realty sign outside a house, breaking the sign in two.

Woods' 28-year-old son, Calvin Swain, was shot and killed in the parking lot of Wildwood Recreation Center in 2005. Swain was the father of Burgess' 15-year-old son, who now has lost both parents. Burgess also leaves behind two other sons and a daughter.

A crowd of more than 100 converged on the block or watched from front porches and driveways as police worked the cordoned-off crime scene. Grievers consoled one another. Others were angry, and some had to be restrained by friends.

"They keep doing this because it's no consequence," a frustrated Anthony Jackson said as he drove through the area. "This is just crazy."