A suspect has been arrested on murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting of a woman in Old West Tampa on Tuesday.
According to Tampa police, Derrick Levert Dempsey, 35, was arrested late Tuesday night on a charge of first-degree murder.
According to Tampa police, officers responded around 5:45 a.m. to a report of shots fired from a home in the 1700 block of West St. Joseph Street. They found a woman in her mid-30s who had been shot.
The woman died at a local hospital. Police have not released her name. A police spokesman said Wednesday that investigators were working to notify her family.
Witnesses told investigators that Dempsey argued with the woman in a pickup truck, then got out, hit the woman and grabbed a gun. Witnesses then heard a shot.
Police said Dempsey and the woman knew each other but did not release further details about their relationship. An arrest affidavit was not immediately available Wednesday.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office assisted in the arrest. According to Dempsey's booking page, he was arrested Tuesday near the intersection of Interstate 275 and East Bearss Avenue around 11:30 p.m.
According to police, authorities seized a shotgun during the arrest. Dempsey was being held without bail Wednesday.
Records show Dempsey has had a number of arrests in Florida, including two domestic battery cases.
In 2021, he pleaded guilty in Citrus County to domestic violence, criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence, records show. A woman said he threw her to the ground, dragged her and punched her repeatedly all over the body, then broke the mirrors and windshield wipers on her car, an affidavit said. He received one year of probation and 10 hours of community service, records show.
Last year, Dempsey pleaded no contest to domestic battery in Duval County after he was arrested and accused of pushing a woman to the ground and kicking her in the face, court records show. Among other things, he was sentenced to two days in prison, which he had already served in prison, and a year of probation.
