Seminole Heights Serial Killer Is Former St. John's Basketball Player

A former University of St. John's basketball player, Howell 'Trai' Donaldson, was arrested in Tampa in connection with the killing of four people in the Seminole Heights are since October 9th.

Donaldson, who was a walk-on on the Red Storm basketball team from 2011-12 but never appeared in a game, graduated from the school in January of 2017, just 10 months before he went on his killing spree.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Donaldson was arrested Tuesday afternoon at a McDonald's where, according to employee Gail Rodgers, he had worked for just two months.

"Rodgers said Donaldson asked the manager to hold onto his semiautomatic pistol for him. She said it was loaded. Then Donaldson walked to Amscot to get a payday loan. Police said he was a crew leader at the restaurant, but Rodgers did not know if he was working that day."

"The manager didn’t know what to do with the gun. Rogers said she huddled with the manager and told him to alert an officer inside the restaurant."

After backup was called and Donaldson was arrested, police began to inspect the vehicle Donaldson drove to work in that day, which is what led the police to finding out that Donaldson was responsible for the killings. He was charged with four counts of premeditated murder and booked into the Hillsborough County jail.

According to reports Benjamin Mitchell, 22, was the first of four to be killed by Donaldson on October 9th. About two days later, Monica Hoffa, 32, was shot and killed and then On October 19th, Anthony Naiboa, 20, was also shot and killed after taking the wrong bus home from his new job. The last victim, Ronald Felton, 60, was murdered on November 14th as he was reportedly walking to volunteer at a food pantry in Seminole Heights.