November 21, 2025 • 7 mins
Should 7th Avenue be closed to traffic after the tragic high-speed crash that killed 4 people? Former Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan shares his thoughts on Ybor City safety.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to the hotline and bring in former Tampa
Police Chief Brian Dugan. Chief Dugan, thanks so much for
taking a few minutes to come on the show. I
wanted to have you on because there's been so much
attention on Ebor City. It's been a rough couple of weekends,
at deadly couple of weekends. And let's go back to
the deadly crash that took place on Seventh Avenue. What
(00:22):
were your takeaways, your thoughts on all that unfolded, and
then we'll get into some of the potential solutions being
floated to deal with something like that moving forward.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, what a difficult situation for the cops that were
involved in that. You know, street racing is so dangerous
when you take a look at you know a lot
of times the people that are racing, they don't have
the skill set that they think they have the drive
at those high speeds. You know, the cops in a
tough spot and they have to the police officers when
(00:55):
they're involved in a pursuit, they're taken into account the weather,
the conditions of the road, the traffic conditions, where's it
headed to. And I mean that was a big thing
that I'm sure they had taken an account that it
was headed towards Ebor City.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
And whenever you have a car driving.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's such a high rate of speed you can travel
several blocks within seconds at that type of speed.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And there is a difference in the pursuit policy between
the local police department and Florida Highway Patrol.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Correct, yes, yes, so what you know?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So basically most of the local agencies would not chase
someone under these type of circumstances. Let's take a look
at let's say the accident doesn't happen and they were
able to, you know, successfully interrupt these this guy and
arrest him. The charges would probably be foundy fleeing to elude,
(01:54):
reckless driving, probably resistant arrest, you know, the variety of
traffic things criminal, but you know, not like heavy hitter stuff.
And what would the system really do to them, so
to speak, is he going to spend ten years in prison? Well, no,
that's probably not going to happen for these type of things.
And so what happens as a law enforcement agency you
(02:15):
start weighing out, like what is the risk towards the
reward of is it worth it to chase somebody at
these high speeds when you have originally traffic, you know
in fractions. If that were a murder, yeah, you might
chase them the hell them back.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Quite frankly.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We're joined by former Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan. So
this deadly incident has led to a lot of concern
among residents and businesses and just you know, people who
tend to go to Ebor City about safety along Seventh Avenue.
Some have called for Seventh Avenue to be shut down
(02:56):
to traffic, but then others have said that could create
other problems. What's your read on that situation?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
You know, I spent several months in New Orleans after
the January first attack where somebody drove a truck down
Bourbon Street and killed several people and injured a whole
lot more, And was there to assess how they shut
down Bourbon Street, how they secure the French Quarter, and
then look at their overall marti gras operations. I very
(03:23):
much have you know, just picture, you know, I look
at Bourbon Street and it's Seventh Avenue on steroids.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But it's all the same type of problems.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
It doesn't matter how long it is, uh as far
as length of the block and all that stuff. When
you get that many people on there, it becomes difficult
to navigate traffic through there.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But at the same.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Time, like I can tell you, when I was chief
of police, we had a lot of problems there any
poor city, and if we allowed them to, you know,
gather in the streets, that's usually what when you start
having problems. You know, we to call midnight to four
am the witching hour, because that's when your problems really.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Start to come out.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Right around two point thirty, you could feel the tents
and the air, so to speak. You could just tell
there was tension, you know these you know, somebody have
a beef with somebody in.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
A bar, it rolls out into the street.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And I mean, let's look at the tragic shooting we
had there on Seventh Avenue. Here you have two young kids,
I want to say they were thirteen or fourteen years
old out there at three am, and you know, I
know we call it a mass shooting because by definition
it is, but it really would It came down to
two kids beefing with each other and if they had
(04:42):
better if they had better aim, and I'm not making
light of the situation, but if they had better aim,
they would have hit each other and not a bunch
of innocent people. You know, So if the street is open,
does it prevent people from gathering? If you close it,
you have to close even on the sidewalk with some
type of ballards. You'd have to have some type of
(05:03):
environmental design to make sure that you can't drive up.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
On the sidewalk. You know.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
One of the interesting thing about the attack in New
Orleans it had parked a Ford Explorer police car at
the top of Bourbon Street, and all the bad guy
did was drive around it. And so you have to
take a look at that type of stuff, you know,
the whole environmental design. I think if you're going to
shut down Seventh Avenue, it's going to be very difficult
(05:33):
because you're not going to get every business owner to agree.
How are you going to get traffic around? You'd have
to do a complete transportation study. If you were going
to block it off on Seventh Avenue to vehicle traffic,
you kind of have to reinvent Ebor City, which may
not necessarily be a bad thing.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Do you have concerts on Seventh Avenue?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Do you have the farmers market on Seventh Avenue during
the day, You're gonna have to have some events to
bring people down there, or else it is not even
worth taking the time to shut down the street.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
We're joined by former Sampa Police Chief Brian Dugan. One
other incident that I wanted to ask you about. This
happened last weekend, some kind of of road dispute between
two individuals, one of them being a well known DJ
in Ebor City. And what I wanted to ask you
specifically about that The shooter has now been charged with
second degree murder. We know who it is, but for
(06:26):
a while there the name hadn't been released. The community
was growing frustrated. How does that typically work during the
course of an investigation, revealing the other person involved in
a deadly altercation like that?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, I think what happens is you have to take
a look at is that person going to be charged
with a crime. You have to be very careful about
when you're releasing the information. You know, we call it
the integrity of the investigation. When you start releasing information,
it gives you know, a potential suspect. They can start
working on their alibi. They don't know if there's any benefits.
(07:05):
I get people's frustration and not knowing the person's identity.
But you really have to maintain the integrity investigation and
be careful how much information you release. I mean, if
you call when I was there, I had the Seminoi
serial killer. We were able, we were not able to
release as much information as we would like now, and
(07:26):
as you know, we also didn't have a lot of information.
But you just have to be careful how much information
when you release it, whether the person who's going to
be charged with a crime, if there is a crime,
and so it's just not an easy black and white answer.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Former Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan with some insight in
some of the recent issues facing Ebors City. Chief Dugan
always appreciate the time and expertise on these kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Thanks so much for coming back on anytime. Have a
good day and a great weekend.
Let's go to the hotline and bring in former Tampa
Police Chief Brian Dugan. Chief Dugan, thanks so much for
taking a few minutes to come on the show. I
wanted to have you on because there's been so much
attention on Ebor City. It's been a rough couple of weekends,
at deadly couple of weekends. And let's go back to
the deadly crash that took place on Seventh Avenue. What
(00:22):
were your takeaways, your thoughts on all that unfolded, and
then we'll get into some of the potential solutions being
floated to deal with something like that moving forward.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, what a difficult situation for the cops that were
involved in that. You know, street racing is so dangerous
when you take a look at you know a lot
of times the people that are racing, they don't have
the skill set that they think they have the drive
at those high speeds. You know, the cops in a
tough spot and they have to the police officers when
(00:55):
they're involved in a pursuit, they're taken into account the weather,
the conditions of the road, the traffic conditions, where's it
headed to. And I mean that was a big thing
that I'm sure they had taken an account that it
was headed towards Ebor City.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
And whenever you have a car driving.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's such a high rate of speed you can travel
several blocks within seconds at that type of speed.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And there is a difference in the pursuit policy between
the local police department and Florida Highway Patrol.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Correct, yes, yes, so what you know?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So basically most of the local agencies would not chase
someone under these type of circumstances. Let's take a look
at let's say the accident doesn't happen and they were
able to, you know, successfully interrupt these this guy and
arrest him. The charges would probably be foundy fleeing to elude,
(01:54):
reckless driving, probably resistant arrest, you know, the variety of
traffic things criminal, but you know, not like heavy hitter stuff.
And what would the system really do to them, so
to speak, is he going to spend ten years in prison? Well, no,
that's probably not going to happen for these type of things.
And so what happens as a law enforcement agency you
(02:15):
start weighing out, like what is the risk towards the
reward of is it worth it to chase somebody at
these high speeds when you have originally traffic, you know
in fractions. If that were a murder, yeah, you might
chase them the hell them back.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Quite frankly.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We're joined by former Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan. So
this deadly incident has led to a lot of concern
among residents and businesses and just you know, people who
tend to go to Ebor City about safety along Seventh Avenue.
Some have called for Seventh Avenue to be shut down
(02:56):
to traffic, but then others have said that could create
other problems. What's your read on that situation?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
You know, I spent several months in New Orleans after
the January first attack where somebody drove a truck down
Bourbon Street and killed several people and injured a whole
lot more, And was there to assess how they shut
down Bourbon Street, how they secure the French Quarter, and
then look at their overall marti gras operations. I very
(03:23):
much have you know, just picture, you know, I look
at Bourbon Street and it's Seventh Avenue on steroids.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But it's all the same type of problems.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
It doesn't matter how long it is, uh as far
as length of the block and all that stuff. When
you get that many people on there, it becomes difficult
to navigate traffic through there.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But at the same.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Time, like I can tell you, when I was chief
of police, we had a lot of problems there any
poor city, and if we allowed them to, you know,
gather in the streets, that's usually what when you start
having problems. You know, we to call midnight to four
am the witching hour, because that's when your problems really.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Start to come out.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Right around two point thirty, you could feel the tents
and the air, so to speak. You could just tell
there was tension, you know these you know, somebody have
a beef with somebody in.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
A bar, it rolls out into the street.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And I mean, let's look at the tragic shooting we
had there on Seventh Avenue. Here you have two young kids,
I want to say they were thirteen or fourteen years
old out there at three am, and you know, I
know we call it a mass shooting because by definition
it is, but it really would It came down to
two kids beefing with each other and if they had
(04:42):
better if they had better aim, and I'm not making
light of the situation, but if they had better aim,
they would have hit each other and not a bunch
of innocent people. You know, So if the street is open,
does it prevent people from gathering? If you close it,
you have to close even on the sidewalk with some
type of ballards. You'd have to have some type of
(05:03):
environmental design to make sure that you can't drive up.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
On the sidewalk. You know.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
One of the interesting thing about the attack in New
Orleans it had parked a Ford Explorer police car at
the top of Bourbon Street, and all the bad guy
did was drive around it. And so you have to
take a look at that type of stuff, you know,
the whole environmental design. I think if you're going to
shut down Seventh Avenue, it's going to be very difficult
(05:33):
because you're not going to get every business owner to agree.
How are you going to get traffic around? You'd have
to do a complete transportation study. If you were going
to block it off on Seventh Avenue to vehicle traffic,
you kind of have to reinvent Ebor City, which may
not necessarily be a bad thing.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Do you have concerts on Seventh Avenue?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Do you have the farmers market on Seventh Avenue during
the day, You're gonna have to have some events to
bring people down there, or else it is not even
worth taking the time to shut down the street.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
We're joined by former Sampa Police Chief Brian Dugan. One
other incident that I wanted to ask you about. This
happened last weekend, some kind of of road dispute between
two individuals, one of them being a well known DJ
in Ebor City. And what I wanted to ask you
specifically about that The shooter has now been charged with
second degree murder. We know who it is, but for
(06:26):
a while there the name hadn't been released. The community
was growing frustrated. How does that typically work during the
course of an investigation, revealing the other person involved in
a deadly altercation like that?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, I think what happens is you have to take
a look at is that person going to be charged
with a crime. You have to be very careful about
when you're releasing the information. You know, we call it
the integrity of the investigation. When you start releasing information,
it gives you know, a potential suspect. They can start
working on their alibi. They don't know if there's any benefits.
(07:05):
I get people's frustration and not knowing the person's identity.
But you really have to maintain the integrity investigation and
be careful how much information you release. I mean, if
you call when I was there, I had the Seminoi
serial killer. We were able, we were not able to
release as much information as we would like now, and
(07:26):
as you know, we also didn't have a lot of information.
But you just have to be careful how much information
when you release it, whether the person who's going to
be charged with a crime, if there is a crime,
and so it's just not an easy black and white answer.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Former Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan with some insight in
some of the recent issues facing Ebors City. Chief Dugan
always appreciate the time and expertise on these kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Thanks so much for coming back on anytime. Have a
good day and a great weekend.
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