Florida suspect in Britons' deaths 'should have been in custody'

[cali]

A Florida judge warned that a teenager was "a danger to the community" and should remain in custody, only for a colleague to free him hours before he is alleged to have shot dead two British tourists in Sarasota.

Shawn Tyson of Newtown, Sarasota, was arrested for killing James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, one day after their bodies were found with multiple gunshot wounds on a street in the crime-plagued neighbourhood.

But it has emerged that the 16-year-old, who had dropped out of school and is believed to have had a troubled home life, should not have been back on the streets at all after an earlier arrest for gun crime.

Detectives failed to appear as ordered at a 15 April hearing into an episode in which Tyson fired a weapon during a fight, and juvenile bench Judge Deno Economou – unaware of the concerns of Sarasota's chief judge Lee Haworth at an earlier hearing – released him from jail into the custody of his mother.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/22/florida-suspect-british-deaths