Two jailed for shooting at homes, police station

It's supposed to be a symbol of safety in any community. But Thursday night, the Clearwater Police Department substation along North MLK Jr. Avenue became the crime scene.

Police say 22-year-old Blake Harris sprayed the substation with nearly a dozen rounds in a drive-by shooting just before 11:00 p.m. Two nearby houses were also hit.

"We do not believe that those two locations were the intended target. We do believe that our building was the intended target," Clearwater Police Deputy Chief Donald Hall said Friday.

Police have established a clear motive.

"We have been receiving intel over the last couple of weeks of some documented gang members who have wanted some retaliation over the police department as a whole," Hall explained.

They say Harris is a documented member of that gang and was caught just around the corner from the shooting. Police also arrested 18-year old Moriah Carpenter. They say Carpenter was driving the car during the shooting.

Police say while two are off the streets, the threat still exists. They're now heightening security.

"You go to a call that normally would require an officer or two, now, we may send three. Just because of the threats we've been receiving and what we've been able to verify through our intelligence side," Major Eric Gandy told FOX 13 Friday.

Officers are also being told to be hyperaware of their surroundings while they're dealing with a brazen kind of criminal.

"What really makes it hard too is that this individual actually put civilians who were actually in harm’s way as well. I'm not saying we're used to it, because we have family members we want to go home to each day, but the point is he put other civilians in harm’s way by his actions," Hall said.

Harris and Carpenter were both booked into the Pinellas County Jail on Friday. Harris was charged with three counts of shooting into an occupied structure, being a felon in possession of a firearm and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Carpenter was charged with three counts of shooting into an occupied structure.