Fourth death in string of Florida killings

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MIAMI (AFP) - A man was fatally shot in the head on Tuesday (Nov 14) in Florida in the fourth in a series of unsolved murders in the southern US state.

The 60-year-old victim was killed in the pre-dawn hours in the western city of Tampa, police said, in the same neighbourhood, Seminole Heights, where three others were shot dead between Oct 9 and 19.

Police believe the four killings, none of which involved a robbery or other obvious motive, may be related.

The "big question is going to be if it is related with the other Seminole Heights murders. Right now we are treating it as though it is related, until we can rule otherwise," Brian Dugan, acting police chief in the city on Florida's Gulf Coast, told a press conference.

Since the killings began last month, police have asked local people not to leave home alone after dark, leave their porch lights on and hand over any security camera footage they may have of suspicious activity.

Mayor Bob Buckhorn told the press conference: "This has got to stop. And we will hunt this person down until we find them."

Last week, in a separate case, police arrested a 22-year-old man suspected of killing three homeless men in and around Fort Lauderdale on Florida's Atlantic coast.

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