Attempted Murder-Suicide Under Investigation

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an attempted murder-suicide that occurred Thursday evening.

According to the sheriff’s office, a women rolled out of a vehicle in the area of Manatee Avenue and 9th Street West around 8 p.m. right in front of a detective.

“The female pointed toward the driver of the vehicle, who sped off toward the Green Bridge,” a media release on the incident stated. The detective followed the vehicle over the bridge, into Palmetto, and tried to stop it.

The vehicle, however, kept on going until it swerved off the road in the 400 block of 8th Avenue West in Palmetto. When deputies approached the car, they found the driver dead inside “suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the released stated.

Deputies later learned that Kristopher Foster, 31, was the driver of the vehicle. The woman, the release said, was the man’s former girlfriend, Jillian Polete, 34. The two had met earlier in the evening and Polete was shot, suffering a non-life-threatening injury.

Foster was supposed to be driving Polete to the hospital when the detective saw her roll from the car, authorities noted.

It is unclear at this time if Polete was thrown from the vehicle or she rolled out in an attempt to escape.

Further details are not yet available.

Image via Shutterstock

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