{"id":55060,"date":"2025-11-21T03:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/55060\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T03:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:04:10","slug":"tampa-police-arrest-man-in-fatal-shooting-of-popular-dj-in-ybor-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/55060\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa police arrest man in fatal shooting of popular DJ in Ybor City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa police have arrested in man in connection with the shooting death of a popular local DJ during an apparent traffic dispute in Ybor City last week.<\/p>\n

Joel Moreno Cobo, 31, was arrested Thursday on a second-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Dedrick Sykes, 41.<\/p>\n

Tampa police took Cobo into custody at his home after securing a warrant for for his arrest, according to a news release the department issued Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice is rooted in evidence, and that has guided our entire investigation,\u201d police Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement. \u201cThis arrest is the direct result of patience and precision, ensuring that we could bring a suspect into custody, and provide fact-based answers to a grieving family as they navigate this difficult time.”<\/p>\n

Some community leaders and friends of Sykes had urged police to release the name of the shooter more quickly, which the department declined to do, citing a need to \u201censure the integrity of the investigation.\u201d Police also had said that rumors that the shooter worked in local law enforcement were not true.<\/p>\n

Sykes, whose stage name was \u201cDJ ShyGuy,\u201d was shot near the intersection of East Fifth Avenue and North 22nd Street in Ybor City.<\/p>\n

Officers responded to the area just after 7 p.m. that day after receiving reports of a shot fired. They found a black BMW sedan and a red Jeep Grand Cherokee on the scene. Sykes, who had been shot once, was on the ground between the cars. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died.<\/p>\n

Police determined that Cobo was the shooter. He had remained on scene and had a gun in a holster on his waistband, which officers took into evidence, the news release states.<\/p>\n

Police described Cobo as \u201ccooperative\u201d and said he claimed self defense. Police launched an investigation that the news release describes as \u201cmethodical\u201d and that included talking to witnesses and gathering more evidence.<\/p>\n

Police determined that Cobo had been driving the BWM and was at a stop sign on Fifth Avenue. A woman in an SUV was blocking his path, so he flashed his lights. Sykes was in the Jeep Cherokee, which was behind the SUV, police said.<\/p>\n

The woman driving the SUV moved forward, as did Sykes, who turned west onto Fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cA brief verbal altercation took place between Moreno Cobo and Skyes at that time, before Sykes\u2019 Jeep came to an abrupt stop,\u201d the police news release states. \u201cWitness statements corroborate that Sykes, who was not armed, had exited his car and within seconds, gunfire was heard and Sykes fell to the ground. The investigation further revealed that Sykes did not make any threats, nor did he make any implication suggesting he was armed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cobo was taken to the Orient Road Jail Thursday. Bail information was not immediately available.<\/p>\n

A Lakeland native who lived in Riverview, Sykes started working as a DJ when he was 14 years old and specialized in a range of appearances including corporate events, private parties and live shows, according to his website and Facebook page. He was a DJ at 7th and Grove for more than six years, a post on the restaurant\u2019s Facebook page said.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for sharing the gift of joy every time you pressed the \u2018on\u2019 button,\u201d said the post, which featured a video of Sykes playing music and dancing with patrons at the restaurant. \u201cThank you for always smiling always pushing \u2018positive vibes only.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sykes\u2019 friends were stunned by his death.<\/p>\n

Ashley Gooden said that he had worked as a DJ for her family for more than eight years. He was mild-mannered and calm, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody loves him,\u201d she said. \u201cHis nickname was \u2018ShyGuy\u2019 for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa police have arrested in man in connection with the shooting death of a popular local DJ during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34302,34303,14858,135,137,136,9822,10364],"class_list":["post-55060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-joel-moreno-cobo","tag-moreno-cobo","tag-release-states","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-police","tag-ybor-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55060","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=55060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}