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Gas station clerk grazed by bullet in Brandon store shooting, deputies search for suspect

Deputies: Victim may have known suspects
Posted at 4:39 AM, Apr 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-19 04:48:20-04

A Thornton's store employee is at a local hospital Wednesday morning after he was grazed by a bullet during a shooting in Brandon.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the shooting at 425 E. Brandon Boulevard that happened at around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Deputies say when they got to Thornton's they found the injured store employee with the graze wound to the leg, as well as gunshot damage to the door. Deputies say that a bullet ricocheted off the door into the victim's leg.

Deputies had a trail of evidence markers leading out the door and around the corner down a side street.

"Motive still unclear, but victim may have had prior history with suspects," says Hillsborough County Sheriff's spokesperson Larry McKinnon. "We'll have a better idea on that aspect as the investigation continues."

McKinnon is calling the crime a case of Aggravated Battery.

A Crime Scene Unit remains at the scene of the store, which is taped off as deputies investigate and look at the store surveillance camera and talk to possible witnesses.

Vehicles paying with credit can still get gas at the store, but the mart is closed.