Updated: Thursday, 3:47 p.m.
BRANDON, FL — A gunman who opened fire at the Citibank Center campus in Tampa's Sabal Park business area on Wednesday afternoon was angry over a $2,500 debt collection, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said during a Thursday news conference. (Watch the full news conference below.)
The shooting left a woman dead and four other people injured, the sheriff's office said. The gunman was fatally shot by an armed Citibank security guard after entering the building. The four injured people were later taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Three hours before the fatal shooting, 35-year-old Jacob Pearson called an attorney for Citibank and threatened violence, the sheriff said.
Pearson 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," according to Chronister.
He then drove from his Orlando home to Citibank's Tampa campus, where about 3,200 employees work across four three-story office buildings.
Just after noon on Wednesday, Pearson arrived at the campus, driving a car over medians and across grass before crashing through a secured fence and into an outdoor dining area at the Citibank campus, HCSO said.
The gunman then got out of the vehicle carrying a rifle and approached a woman who was eating lunch outside, opening fire and killing her, investigators said.
She was identified as Leann Selman, a Citibank employee who worked in human resources, Chronister said.
Pearson then entered the building and headed toward the cafeteria, where he encountered an armed security guard employed by Citibank.
The guard confronted the gunman and exchanged gunfire with him, ultimately fatally shooting him around 12:15 p.m. The guard shot Pearson five times, the sheriff said.
The first 911 calls came in at 12:11 p.m., and the first marked sheriff's deputy arrived within a minute, the sheriff's office said.
The gunman was brought to Tampa General Hospital at 12:24 p.m. and pronounced dead at 1:12 p.m., the agency said.
More than 400 law enforcement personnel responded to the scene, searching and clearing the entire campus.
Pearson had 90 rounds of ammunition with him, but was only able to shoot 15 of them because his rifle jammed and he returned to his car for a handgun, Chronister said.
The shooter intended to kill as many people as possible, 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."
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office released 911 audio, body-camera footage and aerial video documenting the law enforcement response. Watch the video below here.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
Watch HCSO's Thursday afternoon news conference below:
See Also:
Sign up for free local newsletters and alerts for the
Tampa Patch
Patch.com is the nationwide leader in hyperlocal news.
Visit Patch.com to find your town today.