- James Cooper and James Kouzaris spoke to four women in Florida bar
- Their bullet-riddled bodies were found less than two hours later
Two women are seen chatting to James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, in a bar in the resort of Sarasota just hours earlier in video camera footage released yesterday.
Officers are struggling to explain why the university friends ended up on a crime-ridden housing estate in what they believe was a botched robbery attempt.
Questions: Britons James Cooper and James Kouzaris with two of the four women they spoke to in Smokin' Joe's bar, Sarasota, Florida
The images clearly show the quartet talking at 12.13am on Saturday in the busy venue. At 12.50am, the women are seen leaving and the men move to another table and strike up a conversation with another pair of women.
The final image released shows the Britons talking to two blonde women at 1.21am. Police want to talk to all the women who socialised with the two men.
At around 3am, their bodies were found riddled with bullets within 50 feet of each other in a backstreet.
The two university friends, who were staying 12 miles away, were killed after they were both shot several times in the back as they tried to run away.
It also emerged yesterday that the teenager charged with the murders had been released from jail just 12 hours earlier over another gun crime.
The two Britons can be seen engrossed in conversation with two American women. Police are now trying to trace anyone who can help piece the night together
Police hope the blonde and brunette can reveal more about the men¿s plans for that night, including why they ended up in a rough part of town well off the tourist trail
Tyson, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon following that incident. But police had to free him after a week when witnesses failed to attend court to give evidence.
Detectives trying to reconstruct the final hours of the Sheffield University graduates were also hoping that a camera found near their bodies will jog memories.
It contained two snapshots of the pair taken in bars on Friday night.
Tyson lives in a decrepit bungalow with his mother and brother just around the corner from where the bodies were found.
Neighbours speculated the only reason to be there at such an hour was to buy drugs. But police said there was no indication of a drugs connection.
Liz Clare, who dated Mr Kouzaris, 24, for three years, told the Evening Standard: 'I just can't understand why they were there. They're not stupid.
'I was with [James] for three years and he was so cautious. We used to call him grandad because he was so cautious.
'My biggest fear is what people might think about why they were in a dodgy area. Some people are saying there might be a link to drugs but everyone who knows them both knows it would never be that.'
Sarasota Police are also keen to speak to these women to find out any more details about Mr Cooper and Mr Kouzaris's plans for the night
In this final image taken of them, the two men are seen chatting to the second pair of women before they left the bar. Hours later their bodies were found riddled with bullets
'He was a professional tennis coach. Taking drugs would be the last thing on his mind.'
A blogger known as 'Laklak' wrote: 'The Courts public housing project is a cesspit. There are drug dealers and hookers openly plying their trade at all hours.
'Most likely they were looking for a bit of weed... I wouldn't go into this area for any reason at all, even armed to the teeth.'
The pair were fleeing for their lives when they were shot ‘multiple times’ in the back with a handgun at 3am.
They were left to die in a run-down housing project infamous for drug-dealing and violent gang activity. Their bodies were found 50ft apart surrounded by at least 20 bullet cases.
It was understood that the weapon allegedly used by Tyson was a TEC-9, a semi-automatic handgun.
Police suspect they were driven from the bar area to Newtown because there was no sign of a hire car in the area, which last year accounted for 43 per cent of Sarasota’s armed robberies and 83 per cent of its murders.
Denial: Liz Clare, an ex-girlfriend of James Kouzaris, has said the Briton and his friend would not have been trying to buy drugs
This photograph shows James Cooper having fun in a bar. A few hours later he was gunned down alongside his university friend James Kouzaris in a rundown area of Sarasota, Florida
Arrested: 16-year-old Shawn Tyson has been charged with two counts of murder following the shootings
Sonja Seymour, who lives on the street where the men were found in the early hours of Saturday, said: ‘I heard that when they arrived here there were already some people waiting for them. They were wearing masks.
‘The men ran away and they were shot. I saw one of them lying in the street on his back with his arms outstretched.
‘The other was across the road and lying on his back. They were not moving.
‘The ambulance arrived and tried to work on the two men but they couldn’t do anything. They were covered up and taken away and the police put up all the yellow tape.’
Mr Cooper’s parents, Stanley and Sandra, flew into Gatwick from Florida early yesterday to return home to Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire.
The couple were on a three-week holiday with their only child and Mr Kouzaris in the upmarket resort of Longboat Key, 12 miles from Newtown.
They had all gone out on Friday evening, the parents returning to their rented apartment while Mr Cooper, a tennis coach, and his friend, a town planner, went on to local bars.
Mr Kouzaris’s parents, Peter and Hazel, and his sister Emily, said in a statement from their Northamptonshire home, that they were ‘absolutely devastated and in complete shock’.
Captain Paul Sutton, of Sarasota Police, said the evidence suggested the pair were the targets of an attempted robbery.
Tyson was arrested 24 hours after the killings after a tip-off.
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