Citibank office shooter targeted company over a $2,500 debt collection, Florida sheriff says
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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A gunman who killed a woman before being fatally shot by a security guard at Citibank’s sprawling office complex in Tampa targeted the campus because he was angry over a $2,500 debt collection, a sheriff said Thursday.
About three hours before Wednesday’s shooting, Jacob Pearson called an attorney affiliated with Citibank and threatened violence, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told a news conference.
Pearson, 35, told the lawyer that he needed to cancel a court hearing over his debt “unless you want me to go over there with my AR-15, my bulletproof vest and my insanity,” Chronister said.
The attack unfolded as 3,200 employees were working at Citibank’s suburban Tampa campus where the banking giant has four three-story office buildings.
Pearson drove from his home in Orlando to Tampa, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) away, crashed his car through a fence at the campus and plowed into a courtyard where employees were eating lunch, Chronister said.
The sheriff said Pearson got out of his car with a rifle and shot the first employee he saw. She was identified as 41-year-old Leann Selman, who worked in human resources for Citibank.
An executive who is part of Citibank’s armed security team shot the gunman five times before he could hurt anyone else. Pearson was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Chronister said the gunman had 90 rounds of ammunition but shot just 15 rounds before his rifle jammed. He then returned to his car for a handgun, the sheriff said.
“He was there intent on one purpose, and that purpose was to hunt any human being he could find and kill them,” Chronister said.