CHRIS ROCK (POISON DART) & TONY MONTANNA (FORMERLY STRUGGLA & POISON DART) SHOT.
Two members of a Tampa Bay area DJ group named Poison Dart and one associate were killed in an early morning shooting Saturday at a bar in Auburndale, the Polk County Sheriff's Office reported. The victims were identified as Antone Geargo Neely, 29, of Tampa and Michael F. Rattigan, 35, of Riverview. Kevin Jordache Webster, 29, of Deltona was an associate of the group's members.
"This is a brutal murder scene," Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said. "It appears this had something to do with the DJs, as they were the only victims we know of."
Two black male suspects were seen leaving the bar on foot, and possibly left the area in a newer model white BMW 4-door sedan, according to a sheriff's office statement.
The first suspect was described as a black male between the ages of 23 and 30, 6 feet to 6-foot-2, approximately 200 to 225 pounds with a short braid hairstyle. He was wearing black dress-style slacks, a black, short-sleeve button-up shirt, and square-toed loafer-style shoes.
The other was a black male between the ages of 23 and 30, 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-7, approximately 150 to 170 pounds with a short braid hairstyle. The subject was wearing bluejeans and a beige jacket with a hoodie.
Deputies say the shooting may be related to another incident at the bar on May 9 or 10.
"Someone knows the name of who did this, and we need that name," said Judd, who added that he was confident deputies will find the shooter or shooters.
Poison Dart's Web site and the MySpace pages of its members describe them as "reggae/hip-hop/soca" performers.
Rattigan went by the stage name of "Chris Rock" and Neely went by the stage name "Tony Montana," Judd said.
Neely had five children, the youngest a 1-year-old, said his mother-in-law, Diane Donaldson of Tampa.
"He is loving. He is kind. He is good. Everybody knows him. My heart is gone," she said.
Neely would have turned 30 on July 18.
Of Neely's children, Donaldson said, "We don't know how we're going to tell them" of their father's death. "How are they going to manage now, their dad gone?"
The shooting, initially reported as a noise disturbance, happened at 2:40 a.m. at The Thunderbird Bar, 723 New Hope St., according to the sheriff's office.
Judd said the one-story bar, located in an older residential neighborhood, was filled to capacity, with as many as 300 people on hand.
Deputies interviewed many of them after the shooting, Judd said.
Neely and Webster died at the scene, despite life-saving efforts by deputies, the sheriff's office said.
Rattigan was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where he died, the sheriff's office said.
Poison Dart's Web site lists its business address as 11501 N. Nebraska Ave., off Fowler Avenue near the University of South Florida campus in Tampa.
The storefront, its front window plastered with fliers for the group, is part of a strip shopping center that includes a barber shop, Upper Cuts, and a Caribbean grocery store that group members patronized regularly, according to shop owners who did not give their names.
One Upper Cuts employee said Poison Dart appeared at The Thunderbird every Friday night and that previously there had been some kind of altercation.
"I asked Tony what was going on with him," he said. "He had an exchange with some guys over there a week before."
A manager at Jerk Hut Island Grille on Fowler Avenue said group members ate there almost every day and performed at the restaurant every Saturday night.
The group members had a typical laid-back Caribbean style and drew big crowds, the manager said.
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