Advertisement

Authorities identify victims in Spring Hill shooting

 
Published July 20, 2018

SPRING HILL — Deputies on Friday identified three victims in a string of shootings Thursday that left the shooter and one victim dead.

The shootings began in Hudson, where deputies said Theodore Antonia Parker, 59, shot at 44-year-old Tonya Haseman around 2:38 p.m. at a home on Chestnut Drive. Pasco County Sheriff's deputies responded after a neighbor called saying Haseman had crawled to his house and told him she'd been shot.

Deputies said Parker battered Haseman and fired shots at her, but she may not have been hit by any bullets. She had serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The location of the shooting — 10202 Chestnut Drive — is Parker's last known address, according to public records.

According to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, Parker next went to 3404 Olson Road in Spring Hill, where he shot 57-year-old James Rufus Elswick, who died of his injuries.

Investigators believe Parker knew the victims at the first two locations, and neither of those shootings was random.

After the Olson Road shooting, deputies said, Parker drove to nearby Smokes Smoke and Vapor Shop, at 2993 Commercial Way, where he tried to rob the business.

Parker and a store employee exchanged gunfire, deputies said. Deputies found Parker on scene and took him to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The smoke shop employee, 35-year-old Richard Webb, Jr., was taken to the hospital with severe injuries. Deputies said he was still hospitalized Friday but was expected to recover. Investigators believe he was defending himself in shooting Parker.

Public records show Parker had a long criminal record. In 2009, he was released from prison after serving almost 13 years of a 15-year sentence for burglary. He'd previously spent time in prison for trafficking in stolen property, burglary and grand theft. Between 1977 and 1996, he was arrested 19 times.

Times senior news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.