By Rita Farlow, Jim Damaske, Dominick Tao and Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Evidence markers dot the Rainbow Food Mart parking lot Tuesday morning at 2575 East Bay Drive.
LARGO — The woman who was wounded in a drive-by shooting Tuesday morning died of her injuries this afternoon, according to Largo police.
Annie Marie Conyers, 26, of Clearwater, was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. at Bayfront Medical Center, police said.
Meanwhile law enforcement continued to scour Pinellas County for the alleged shooter: ex-convict Larry Joe Jerry Jr., 26.
He is wanted on one charge of murder and four counts of attempted murder. Authorities said he should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone who sees him or has knowledge of his whereabouts is asked to contact police immediately.
"It was not a random act," said Largo police Lt. Mike Loux.
Largo police said the victim stopped in a car at the Rainbow Food Mart, 2575 East Bay Drive, about 10:24 a.m. with three other women and a child. The driver and child stayed in the car. The victim and two other women were walking into the store when the shooting started, police said.
Someone in a black Ford Edge sport utility vehicle opened fire on the group with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, police said. The woman in the car with the child sped off. Two of the women managed to run into the store and take cover.
But Conyers didn't make it, police said, and was shot in the lower torso. After firing multiple rounds, police said the shooter fled.
Cesarina Stanganelli, owner of Cesarina Deli and Bakery in the same strip mall, said a customer heard the gunshots and alerted her to the shooting.
"He said 'Lock the door, lock the door,' because we didn't know what was going on," she said. "It was very scary."
She saw the victim lying on the ground afterward. "She was in very bad shape," Stanganelli said.
No one else was injured in the shooting.
Loux said they believe the shooter is Jerry. They spent Tuesday looking for him and the rented SUV he was seen in, with license plate number U119JE. They believe he was alone in the SUV.
Suspect and victims knew each other, police said, but they said the motive behind the shooting is still unclear. Nor did police say if the victim was the intended target, or if it was one of the other women.
Jerry's sister, Malaya Pelham, told Bay News 9 that the shooting was borne out of an altercation between two women her brother was involved with. She said Jerry had fathered a child with one of those involved in the dispute.
"There was a big argument that happened last night with the baby mama ...," Pelham said. "I guess his baby mama told him a lie and he went after the girls."
The suspect has been linked to several addresses across north Pinellas, police said, and drawn in a number of agencies: the U.S. Marshals, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and police agencies from Largo, Clearwater and Tarpon Springs.
Tuesday afternoon's search for Jerry took Pinellas deputies and Largo officers to a "location of interest" at 3691 137th Ave. N in an unincorporated part of the county, said sheriff's spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda.
Deputies blocked off up to a dozen houses in the neighborhood and escorted residents in and out as they searched. But the operation was called off around 3 p.m.
Around the same time Clearwater police lifted their lockdown earlier that afternoon of the Clearwater Center nursing home, 1270 Turner St. Securing the nursing home was just a precaution, said Clearwater police spokeswoman Beth Watts.
Loux said his agency was aware of several locations Jerry is known to have frequented and asked other law enforcement agencies for assistance in checking those areas.
But Loux said police do not have any indication Jerry was in the areas searched Tuesday.
Jerry is described as a 5-foot-10 black man weighing 260 to 300 pounds. He may also have teeth fitted with gold and jewelry.
Pinellas court records show he has been arrested at least nine times on battery charges since 2005. He was sentenced to 13 months in prison in 2003 for possession of cocaine with intent to sell.
He was released from prison in 2004, but has been arrested repeatedly since then, according to county records. He is also wanted on outstanding arrest warrants for fleeing and eluding and driving with a license that was suspended or revoked.
Jerry also has a history of domestic violence arrests. In November 2007, Jerry was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery after he grabbed his pregnant girlfriend by the throat and "punched her several times about the face and head," Pinellas deputies said. The charge was dropped when the girlfriend, Curtisa Huff, told prosecutors she did not want to file charges.
Four months later, Jerry was accused of grabbing Huff and bruising her arm. Court records do not detail why that charge was also dropped. An arrest report in that case says that Jerry and Huff had been dating for about three years and had an infant daughter together.
Jerry was himself the victim of a shooting in July.
Deputies were called to his home at 2132 Coral Way in Largo about 11 p.m. July 13, according to the Sheriff's Office. They found Jerry with a gunshot wound to the right shoulder.
Jerry was shot near Woodlawn Street and S Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Clearwater, police said, then drove or was driven home to Largo where the incident was reported. Jerry was treated at Bayfront Medical Center.
Clearwater police said they searched the area after the shooting but did not find the suspect named "Kenny" that Jerry had described to them. Clearwater police did not provide an update to that investigation Tuesday.
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