TAMPA, Fla (WFLA) — Harrison Boonstoppel was one of two people shot and killed in a mass shooting in Ybor City over the weekend.
The 20-year-old had only been there for a short amount of time before the shots rang out.
Early Sunday morning, Harrison’s parents were awoken by a knock on the door and saw his friend who told them how it all unfolded.
“Guns started firing, and so they were all running away and according to his friends, he was saying, ‘Everybody drop to the ground, drop to the ground,” said Brucie Boonstoppel, Harrison’s mother.
“They all drop to the ground and then his two friends got up, and they say ‘Harrison, Harrison, let’s get going, let’s go,’ and they say he didn’t get back up,” Brucie added.
Harrison’s family learned he had been shot in the back and taken to Tampa General Hospital. Doctors told the family there was nothing they could do to save his life.
“I have gone on marches against guns, and it’s like with all the work and all the careful stuff it’s still found a way, and it found my son, I just don’t understand that,” Brucie said.
Harrison was known for having an adventurous spirit and a huge love of cars. His family doesn’t understand how something like this could happen to him.
“I feel sorry for me as a parent, but I feel sorry for him not being able to live a full life and go off on his own,” said Harrison’s father, Karel Boonstoppel.
Police arrested 22-year-old Tyrell Phillips in connection with the shooting and are still looking for more possible suspects as of this writing.
