{"id":156519,"date":"2026-02-15T18:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/156519\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T18:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:39:10","slug":"tampa-police-boost-safety-measures-in-ybor-city-for-illuminated-knight-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/156519\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa police boost safety measures in Ybor City for Illuminated Knight Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ybor <\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Ybor City<\/a> saw two deadly events at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

Timeline:<\/p>\n

First, police say\u00a0Silas Sampson caused a crash that killed four and injured 11 others after he drove his car into a crowd on 7th\u00a0Avenue in Ybor City.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS STORY: Ybor City crash: Multiple new charges filed against suspect after toxicology results<\/a><\/p>\n

This happened in the early morning hours of Nov. 8\u00a0outside Bradley’s on 7th, in the busy part of the Ybor strip.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Less than a week later on Nov. 14, a well-known DJ, Dedrick Sykes, was killed in a road rage shooting at the intersection of East 5th Avenue and North 22nd Street, according to the Tampa <\/a>Police Department.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Arrest made in road rage death of well-known local DJ<\/a><\/p>\n

Since then, Ybor City has hosted other larger safe events, including the 2025 Christmas Tree Lighting, and now this year\u2019s Illuminated Knight Parade.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Tampa Police<\/a>\u00a0Chief Lee Bercaw said TPD is always prepared to secure Tampa for large-scale events but is always open to readjusting to make improvements year over year.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“We always reassess things,” Bercaw said. “That’s a tragedy that we’ll never forget, but we’re always planning and making adjustments to make our security the best it can be.”<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

Tampa police said\u00a0it\u00a0stepped up police presence for the parade, including uniformed officers on foot and bike patrols, mounted officers on horseback and plainclothes officers.<\/p>\n

TPD\u00a0also utilized drones to keep an eye on the crowd from above, as well as temporary bollards and barricades.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this story comes from the Tampa Police Department and previous FOX 13 News coverage.<\/p>\n

Ybor City<\/a>Tampa Police Department<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Ybor City saw two deadly events at the end of 2025. Timeline: First, police say\u00a0Silas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,115,1536,135,137,136,1634,628,10364],"class_list":{"0":"post-156519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-hillsborough","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-organization","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-headlines","14":"tag-tampa-news","15":"tag-tpd","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-ybor-city"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}