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, Florida, targeted the campus because he was angry over a $2,500 debt collection, a sheriff said Thursday.
About three hours before Wednesday's shooting, 35-year-old Jacob Pearson called an attorney affiliated with Citibank and threatened violence if a court hearing over the debt wasn’t canceled, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told a news conference.
Pearson drove from his home in Orlando to Tampa, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) away, crashed his car through a fence at Citibank’s 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. An executive who is part of Citibank’s armed security time shot the gunman five times before he could hurt anyone else. Pearson was pronounced dead at a hospital.
