Two men who are thought to have gone on a crime spree that led to the death of a bicyclist on Clearwater Beach are now in custody.
Thursday, police said they had arrested a second man in connection with the brutal killing of Jeffrey Chapman.
Police say that Chapman, a 49-year-old man from Clearwater Beach, was killed with a tyre iron on Mandalay Avenue just after midnight on October 21. He was riding his bike at the time.
Police said that surveillance video helped them figure out that the car used in the attack was registered to Jermaine Adrian Bennett, who is 26 years old and lives in Tampa.
Bennett was caught and charged with first-degree murder last month. Police said he admitted to hitting Chapman with a tyre iron more than 10 times and “didn’t feel bad about killing her.”
Chief Daniel Slaughter held a news conference on Thursday to say that his 18-year-old partner had been caught.
Slaughter said that the men had gone on a crime spree the night of the attack, using the same thing that would be used to kill them.
They are said to have attacked an elderly man near the Wawa on 22nd Avenue in St. Petersburg about an hour before the murder and left him “battered in the street.” Since then, the man has been sent home from the hospital.
Videos shown at Thursday’s news conference showed the men beating on cars with the tyre iron. There were also times when they broke windows.
