HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – Hillsborough County deputies fatally shot a 19-year-old man who opened fire on law enforcement after he killed his mother and father near Tampa, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies responded late Saturday to the 14000 block of Cactus Wren Place when a 911 caller — the suspect’s mother — told dispatchers that her husband had just been shot. While she was on the phone with the sheriff’s office, several more shots could be heard, according to a news release.
The suspect, identified as Christos Alexander, was in the front yard of the residence with his mother when deputies arrived, the release states. Alexander then shot his mother and fired at deputies, prompting five deputies to return fire, according to the sheriff’s office.
“As they start dialogue with the mother — telling her, ‘Hey, walk toward us’ — they see our suspect, they see our bad guy. Our bad guy at this time walks up behind the mom and shoots his own mother in the back of the head. At that time, he decides to exchange gunfire with our deputy sheriffs,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said at a news conference early Sunday.
One deputy was shot in the exchange, identified as Deputy Shane McGough, 26, a two-year veteran of the sheriff’s office. At the conference, Chronister said McGough had been shot in the leg and was rushed to the hospital.
Alexander went down, crawled back into his home and was later found dead inside, having succumbed to his injuries, according to the sheriff. At the conference, Chronister said that the sheriff’s office’s SWAT team had to clear the home on foot because a robot that was sent in to locate the suspect was obstructed by the father’s body.
“The monster we encountered this evening is responsible for not only injuring our deputy but also killing his own mother and father,” Chronister said in a statement. “Our deputies responded to a chaotic scene and immediately put themselves in harm’s way to protect our community. Without our deputy’s quick and skillful response, an entire neighborhood would have been in danger.”
McGough was in stable condition with a broken leg as of Sunday morning, the sheriff’s office said, adding none of the five deputies involved in the shooting have any prior uses of deadly force.
“Since 2021, we’ve had at least 10 calls for service at this residence. The son lived with his mother and father (...) and during the 10 calls for service, the two calls for service that are the predominant calls for service are mental health calls for service with our 19-year-old suspect and violence that he has inflicted against his own mother and father,” Chronister said. “...Again, he is 19 years of age and he has died here this evening, again because he made the choice to get in a gunfight with our deputy sheriffs after killing his own mother and father.”
An investigation is ongoing, currently led by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement per sheriff’s office policy, according to the release. The sheriff’s office’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Crisis Negotiation teams had also been called to assist, the release states.
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