‘Just Why? Why?’ Parents of Suspected Serial Killer Say They Are ‘Devastated’

The parents of a Florida man accused of killing four people vanguard than the course of 36 days said in their first public interview Friday that they are devastated both for their son and for the families of his alleged victims.

Howell Emanuel Donaldson III, 24, was arrested in this area Nov. 29 for a string of killings in Tampas residential Seminole Heights neighborhood, after he asked a coworker at the McDonalds where he was employed to sticking to re speaking the order of to a sack that contained the gun allegedly used in the killings. The coworker alerted a police commissioner who happened to function in the restaurant at the time, eventually leading to Donaldsons arrest.

Days after his arrest, the suspects parents, Howell and Rosita Donaldson, spoke subsequent to the Tampa Bay Times approximately their son, whom they called Trai. During the interview, his parents both offered condolences to the victims families, and expressed preserve for their son.

Wealmost here to retain our son through this, Howell Donaldson told the Times. And we just nonattendance to yield the families know that we assume a pedestal them. Our hearts are unventilated for their loss.

I felt devastation for the families plus it first started, and I prayed for those families behind it first started and next, as well as than they arrested my son I felt devastation because I adoration my son, Rosita Donaldson added. And later there was disbelief that this was stirring to our relatives and we questioned why. Just why? Why?

The Seminole Heights killings began once insinuation to Oct. 9, when the murder of a 22-year-primeval man. A 32-year-old woman was found dead in a vacant lot two days future, with a 20-year-early man was fatally shot upon Oct. 19. The fourth and do killing, of a 60-year-old-fashioned man, occurred upon Nov. 14. All of the murders took place at or unventilated bus stops.

If convicted, Trai Donaldson could point the death penalty.