After shots were fired at a group of people gathered outside a St. Petersburg bar on Easter Sunday, it didn’t take long for detectives to identify suspects.
St. Petersburg police were known to five people, whose documents show they were seen in surveillance video that showed the shooting. The men were identified as belonging to two gangs in the St. Petersburg area, according to police and court documents.
By Wednesday evening all five were arrested.
So, too, was a high-profile associate: Rodarius Marcel Green, also known as St. Petersburg rapper Rod Wave, who was arrested Wednesday in Manatee County on two counts of possession of ammunition as a convicted felon. I went.
However, a few hours later, St. Petersburg police realized that they had made a mistake: Green was not, in fact, a convicted criminal. He was released from the Manatee County jail after the error was discovered.
Green has not been charged in connection with Sunday’s shooting and police said investigators do not know whether he was involved. An attorney for Green has denied that he is affiliated with any gang.
Court documents and information provided by St. Petersburg police this week detail how Green is connected to the investigation that has led to multiple charges against five people arrested. Police also provided a more detailed explanation for the error that led to Green’s arrest on ammunition charges.
easter sunday shooting
By about 10:30 p.m. Sunday night, a large group gathered outside Sonic Sports Bar and Lounge, 400 49th St. S.
According to an arrest warrant filed in the shooting case, surveillance video obtained by detectives at 10:29 p.m. showed the driver of a blue Infinity SUV parked in the bar’s lot, with 32-year-old Elias Torres exiting the driver’s door.
The Infiniti is registered in Green, according to police and court documents.
At 10:48 p.m., the video shows four people – Christopher Atkins, Willie Cookinson, Kevontre Wesby and Keith Wesby – crossing 49th Street and meeting Torres, who points east, where briefly Shooting will take place later, according to the affidavit.
The men walked east and Cookinson, Atkins and two Wesby men fired several rounds into a large group of people, the affidavit says. Torres was present but did not fire.
All five people walked back to the Infinity, and Torres got into the driver’s seat and drove west on Fourth Avenue South.
St. Petersburg police Detective Mallory Marzo said in the affidavit that she is familiar with the men because she has been investigating the Young Gangsters and OMBNC gangs and their associates since March 2022, and that she used hidden surveillance to monitor a home at 500 Was using cameras. Block of Palm Avenue.
Records show that men have been seen coming and going from that home.
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Palm Avenue cameras showed the Infiniti SUV pulling up to the house at 11:03 p.m. and Torres getting out. Given the home’s distance from the Sonic Bar scene, investigators believe Torres drove directly to the home after the shooting.
Police spoke to four people who were shot that night.
A 28-year-old woman said she heard gunshots and started running and realized she had been shot in the shoulder. A 24-year-old man said he started running when the shots were fired and was shot in the ankle.
Another 27-year-old man said he ran when the firing started and was shot in the left arm and hand. At the same time, a 17 year old girl was shot in her left hand while running away.
Police obtained search warrants for the Palm Avenue home and another home in Manatee County.
According to police, both houses are rented by Green.
On Monday evening, the St. Petersburg Police Department’s SWAT team served a search warrant at a St. Petersburg home. Police said numerous items were seized, including five rifles, five handguns, ammunition and more than $10,000 in cash. Police arrested two people who were in the home, but they have not been charged in connection with the shooting.
According to an affidavit of probable cause for Green’s arrest, police, along with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, searched the Manatee County home on Wednesday. During a search, police found live ammunition and a handgun slide in the kitchen, the affidavit said. Green’s name was on several items in the home, the affidavit said.
Green was also there, and police arrested him as a convicted felon on two counts of illegal possession of ammunition.
Green was convicted of a felony in Pinellas County on Nov. 16, 2017, for carrying a concealed gun, the affidavit said. But court records from the case show Green pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon that day.
“If you took two minutes to look at his records online, you would see that he is not a convicted felon. And these are police officers who know how to check someone’s criminal record,” Green’s attorney, Mark Rankin, said in an interview Wednesday.
Police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez confirmed Wednesday that the arrest was an accident and provided more details Thursday.
When detectives learned that Green was there with people whom detectives were arresting in connection with the Sonic shooting, St. Petersburg police Detective Eric Sireni inquired about Green’s condition, Fernandez said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times. Called the department’s emergency communications center to inquire.
“Ciereni was given false information about Green’s prior convictions,” Fernandez said. “Although Green had previously been arrested for a felony, the charge was reduced and he was ultimately charged with a misdemeanor. Was convicted of. Hours later, when the error was discovered, Green was released.
Fernandez said an internal review is underway into the emergency communications employee who made the mistake.
An “enabler”?
At a press conference Wednesday, police announced that three suspects had been arrested earlier that day in connection with the Sonic Bar shooting: Kevontre Wesby, 20, Keith Wesby, 21, and Atkins, 24.
St. Petersburg Assistant Police Chief Mike Kovacsev said during the press conference that investigators believe one of the men, later identified as Torres, “had a beef” with someone there and four Called other people.
Kovacsev said the suspects fired more than 60 rounds and some targeted occupied and unoccupied vehicles. He said investigators do not believe any of the people shot were the intended targets or did anything wrong.
Kovacsev acknowledged that reporters had questions about Green.
“But it’s not about that,” Kovacsev said. “It’s more about this matter and I want to make sure we stay on point. “This was a mass shooting that detectives did a great job of eliminating.”
Kovacsev said firearms and other evidence collected during searches of both homes would help in the Sonic shooting and other cases. He said the BMW recovered from the Palm Avenue home has been linked to “several” other shootings in the city.
Kovacsev said police do not know whether Green was involved in the Sonic shooting.
“We don’t know whether he was there when the shots were fired that evening. We don’t know whether he had anything to do with it at that time,” Kovacsev said. “It’s a big fact that you have vehicles, you have residences, you have collusion here… and we can’t ignore that.”
He said police will work with the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office to determine whether Green will be charged based on the evidence collected so far.
“You don’t want to be an enabler, and if people are going to do things that are criminal or illegal, you don’t necessarily want to be a part of that, and I hope he will distance himself from individuals who do that.” Will do things of this nature,” Kovacsev said.
Green grew up in the Cromwell Heights neighborhood of St. Petersburg. He began developing his music career in high school and in 2018 he signed with startup label Alamo Records, which was later acquired by Sony. In 2020, her song “Heart on Ice” became popular on TikTok and broke the Billboard Hot 100.
He was arrested in Pinellas County in 2022 on a domestic battery charge out of Osceola County that was later dropped. That same year, he made headlines for giving away $25,000 worth of free gas in St. Petersburg.
In an update Thursday morning, police announced that the final two of the five Sonic shooting suspects — Cookinson and Torres — had turned themselves in Wednesday evening.
All five suspects were booked into the Pinellas County Jail, records show.
Kevontre Wesby is charged with attempted second-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. He was released early Thursday on $265,000 bond, records show.
Keith Wesby and Atkins were charged with attempted second-degree murder. Both were released early Thursday on $250,000 bond.
Cookinson, 24, was booked on charges of attempted second-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon. He was released Wednesday night on $300,000 bond, records show.
Torres was charged with attempted second-degree murder as a principal. He was released Wednesday night on $250,000 bond.
Kevontre Wesby and Keith Wesby did not immediately respond to voicemail messages left at numbers listed for them in court documents Thursday. The Times was not immediately able to find working numbers for Atkins, Cookinson and Torres.
Times staff writer Leslie Cosme Torres contributed to this report.
