{"id":51506,"date":"2025-11-18T18:23:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T18:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/51506\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T18:23:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T18:23:39","slug":"tampa-community-leaders-friends-of-killed-dj-demand-shooters-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/51506\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa community leaders, friends of killed DJ demand shooter\u2019s identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a dozen community leaders and friends of a professional DJ who was fatally shot in Ybor City on Friday night are calling for the Tampa Police Department to publicly release the shooter\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dedrick Sykes, whose stage name was \u201cDJ ShyGuy,\u201d died after a man shot him<\/a> at an intersection after the men got into an argument, according to the Tampa Police Department.<\/p>\n

Elvis Piggott, a pastor and former City Council candidate, spoke at a news conference Monday evening outside Tampa Police Department headquarters. He said the shooter\u2019s name should be released because he poses a potential threat to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here asking for the police investigation,\u201d said Piggott, who was arrested in October<\/a> after he was accused of pulling a gun at a Tampa city council forum. \u201cWe\u2019re asking for the name of the shooter who took his life. That should not be difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piggott described Sykes, who had worked as a DJ at 7th and Grove for more than six years, as a man who \u201cspends his life making others have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashley Gooden, a friend of Sykes, said he had worked as a DJ for her family for more than eight years. He was mild-mannered and calm, she said, and she had never heard him raise his voice at anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody loves him,\u201d she said. \u201cHis nickname was \u2018ShyGuy\u2019 for a reason, so it\u2019s not adding up. He\u2019s not an angry Black man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gooden said she was shocked when she heard that Sykes had been killed and couldn\u2019t imagine him getting into a violent argument on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat could he have said or done to make someone shoot him and take his life?\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t match the person that we know him to be, and not just me and the people standing here, but our entire community. It\u2019s not adding up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tampa Police Department said it would not release the name of the shooter to \u201censure the integrity of the investigation.\u201d In a statement Monday morning, the department urged people to \u201cavoid sharing unverified or inaccurate information online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police confirmed Monday that the shooter \u201cwas not a current on-duty, off-duty, or retired Tampa Police officer, or other local law enforcement officer.\u201d The department did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment Tuesday morning from the Tampa Bay Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a dozen community leaders and friends of a professional DJ who was fatally shot in Ybor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[32109,608,32550,135,610,137,136,3793],"class_list":["post-51506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-dedrick-sykes","tag-elvis-piggott","tag-professional-dj","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-city-council","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-police-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51506","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=51506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}