A Florida sanitation worker is dead following a shocking crime that has rocked an entire city and workforce. According to FOX 13 Tampa Bay, 47-year-old Tasha Moses was sitting inside a City of St. Petersburg front loader work truck when she was fatally shot shortly after 12:30 p.m. on July 22 in the 4100 block of 12th Avenue South. Friends identified Moses as a mother of four who had worked for the City of St. Petersburg for 12 years.
The St. Petersburg Police Department said officers responded to a report of a person shot and found the city employee dead at the scene. Police described the killing as targeted and said it was not a random act of violence.
According to additional reporting, investigators said Moses and the accused shooter knew one another. Police said an argument happened before the man allegedly entered the cab of the front loader and shot Moses several times. Authorities have described the case as domestic in nature, but they have not publicly explained the exact relationship between the two or disclosed a motive.
Police identified the accused gunman in the Tasha Moses shooting as 43-year-old Ladavion King. Investigators believe King left St. Petersburg after the killing and traveled south toward Lee County.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers received a lookout alert identifying King as a person connected to the St. Petersburg homicide. Troopers later located his vehicle in Lee County and attempted to stop him, but authorities said he fled. A trooper then performed a Precision Immobilization Technique maneuver near the Alico Road exit on southbound Interstate 75.
King allegedly refused law enforcement commands and remained barricaded inside his vehicle as Florida Highway Patrol troopers and Lee County sheriff’s deputies surrounded the area. Shots were fired during the confrontation before King was taken into custody with serious injuries.
Authorities transported King to a Lee County hospital, where he remained under the custody of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office as of the latest update Thursday. Police have not said whether King was wounded by a trooper, a sheriff’s deputy, or a self inflicted gunshot. They also have not released the number of shots fired during the killing of Moses or the Interstate 75 standoff.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is independently investigating the gunfire involving law enforcement. No troopers or deputies were reported injured during the standoff. Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Dave Kerner said, “State troopers and law enforcement officers put themselves in harm’s way every day to protect the people of this great state.”
The current public reporting does not show that King has been formally booked or identify any criminal charges filed against him. The available updates identify him as the accused shooter and state that he remains hospitalized in law enforcement custody. Any charges, court appearances, or bond decisions would follow after his medical condition allows and prosecutors review the evidence gathered by investigators.
Theshooting has also placed attention on the loss suffered by city employees who worked beside her. St. Petersburg arranged grief counselors for city employees on Wednesday and Thursday.
Although police have called the killing domestic related, authorities have not publicly identified King as a current or former romantic partner of Moses. That distinction remains important while the investigation continues.
The case nevertheless reflects the wider reality that domestic violence can follow victims into places where they should be able to work safely. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, crime report data suggest that approximately one in five homicide victims is killed by an intimate partner and that more than half of female homicide victims are killed by a current or former male intimate partner.
The CDC’s latest 2023 and 2024 Intimate Partner Violence Data Brief found that nearly one in three women experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime along with at least one related impact, including injury, safety concerns, missed work, medical care, or police involvement.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration defines workplace violence as an act or threat of violence directed at workers and notes that it can include physical assault and homicide. Moses was not inside a private home when she was killed. She was in a marked city vehicle, carrying out an essential public service in the middle of her workday.
The St. Petersburg Police Department continues to investigate Moses’ death, while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is handling the separate investigation into the Interstate 75 confrontation. Until those agencies release additional findings, the motive, the precise relationship between Moses and King, the origin of King’s injuries, and the charges he may face remain publicly unanswered.
