FL - Dontae Lampkins, 25, shot to death, Tampa, 26 Jan 2017

TAMPA -- Police are investigating the apparent homicide of a 25-year-old man whose body was discovered in a Seminole Heights alley on Thursday afternoon.

The victim, Dontae Lampkins, was discovered dead of apparent upper body trauma. His body was located in an alley between E Comanche Avenue and E Mohawk Avenue and N 9th Street and N 11th Street

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Dontae Lampkins, 25, was discovered dead in an Seminole Heights alley on Thursday. (Photo: Tampa Police Department)

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TAMPA -- Authorities are continuing to search for more leads in the homicide case of Dontae Lampkins, who was found dead of upper body trauma in a Seminole Heights alley on January 26.Tampa Police Department said that Lampkins may have been in contact with a suspect he met through a dating app.

Lampkins may have been lured through the app to Seminole Heights, an area Lampkins was not known to frequent, according to details from a January 27 article from the Tampa Bay Times.

Video of Lampkins boarding and exiting a HART bus was released Monday. It is the last known footage of Lampkins.

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According to the Times, Lampkins was the third openly gay man who was a victim of homicide since December in the same neighborhood.

TPD spokesman Stephen Hegarty told the Times that the department does not believe the cases are related.
Detectives are seeking the public's help for more information in this case. On February 3, TPD released a composite sketch of a person of interest based on eyewitness statements.

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FOX 13 also obtained a search warrant in which Tampa Police indicate Lampkins had been shot at least 11 times.

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Lampkins' murder has been a mystery to his family. He lives eight miles from the alley where his body was found. His loved ones had no idea why he was there.

The search warrant sheds some light on what investigators believe happened.

Lampkins asked Carlton to take him to the Hillsborough County Health Department for an appointment. Police said that surveillance video inside the building shows he only stayed there for a few minutes before leaving and heading for the HART bus stop.

Police aren't sure what happened to Lampkins after he exited the bus. According to the search warrant, detectives believe he thought he may have been meeting someone he'd been communicating with through a dating website or app like Plenty of Fish or Kik.

"I don't know that they lured him there to kill him or just to rob him, but obviously for someone to unload like that and fire that many shots, you would think there would be some anger involved," said Tampa Police spokesperson Steve Hegarty.

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The Blake High School graduate had recently decided to study nursing at Hillsborough Community College and was working at the Convergys Corp. call center near Interstate 4. He didn’t have a criminal record and never ran with a bad crowd, his family said.

Instead he liked to dance to Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj songs, watch bad made-for-TV movies on Lifetime and spend time with friends and family. He was always open about his sexuality, but never had trouble making friends from all walks of life, Carlton said.

When word of his death spread Thursday night, the road outside his Beechwood Boulevard home was so congested with friends, co-workers and family paying respects to his mother that police had to direct traffic.

“Dontae didn’t deserve this at all, he was a person who was loved,” Williams said.

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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)– A man was murdered in January while using a popular dating app. New video, as well as new details, were released Monday, in this disturbing case where a young man with a bright future lost his life, looking for love.

“Dontae was my everything. My baby. He was my sunshine,” said Blanchie Williams. Her eyes welled with tears as she talked about her 25-year-old son, calling him one of the nicest young men you would ever meet.His mother feels lost, and his family wants answers.

The family is heartbroken after losing Dontae Lampkins on January 26th. The young man’s body was found in an alley in Seminole Heights. He had been shot 11 times.

The question now – who did this and why?

Documents show that he was using the dating app, Plenty of Fish, as well as the messenger app, KIK.

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TAMPA BAY - A 25-year-old Tampa Bay man is dead after police say he met someone on a popular dating app.

Dontae Lampkins vanished while using the dating app Plenty of Fish.

His body was discovered in an alley, riddled with bullets.
His family believes he was targeted because he was gay

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[h=1]TPD searching victim's phone for new clues in Seminole Heights murder[/h]

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dotr said:

Last CCTV of Dontae.
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news...dered-after-meeting-man-on-popular-dating-app

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Witnesses in the area provided police with descriptions of a man who may have been at or near the location at the time of the murder, possibly on a bicycle. Homicide detectives are hoping to talk with the man to see if he can assist in their investigation, police said.

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