By Ileana Morales, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, October 14, 2010
RIVERVIEW — Neighbors didn't know David Douglas Briell III by name, but they knew what he was like.
He was big, tall and ripped. He spent time at the beach. He often left his garage door open as he lifted weights. He was friendly, said hello to the kids on the block. He mostly kept to himself.
Briell, of Riverview, was shot to death in his single-story home Wednesday night, Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies said. He was 39.
Briell's roommate told investigators he hid on the floor in his room after hearing a male intruder enter the house about 8 p.m. and tell Briell to stay put in a separate room. The roommate called authorities to 12230 Dawn Vista Drive.
Briell's roommate could only describe the suspect as male. Deputies have not identified a suspect.
Investigators do not believe the crime was random, said Larry McKinnon, a Sheriff's Office spokesman.
Albert Moore was home a few houses away when it happened. Moore said he didn't hear or see anything unusual. He said Briell was very friendly and used to jog around the neighborhood a few times a week.
Two houses down from the one lined in crime scene tape, Cynthia Fox said Briell always said hello, and she watched him clean out his car every Friday. She didn't know him well. She said Briell's roommate was short, stocky. She didn't see him much.
Fox said she cried hysterically when a neighbor called Wednesday night and told her what happened.
Thursday morning, the street was quiet except for the screeching of a neighbor's birds and the rumble of a garbage truck passing through. A bicyclist waved to Fox's 3-year-old son, Tyler.
For Fox, Briell was another nice person in the South Pointe subdivision where she said a neighbor once saved her 4-month-old baby when he choked outside her house. When Fox returned home the night of the shooting, she said she didn't recognize the street lined with TV news crews and sheriff's deputy cars.
"A neighbor saved our son's life here, you know," Fox said. "It's hard to believe someone came to the neighborhood and took a life."
Neighbor Arema Brosnatch said she's lived there for eight years, and she often saw Briell working out. She said he was a hunk. His death shocked her.
"I've never seen anything like that, ever," Brosnatch said. "It's just scary."
State criminal records show Briell was a 6-1, 220-pound mechanic in 2008 when he was arrested in Hillsborough County for withholding information to obtain prescription drugs from a doctor. Briell was accepted into a pre-trial diversion program for the felony charges.
Times reporters Robbyn Mitchell and Danny Valentine and Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Ileana Morales can be reached at imorales@sptimes.com.