HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is working to piece together what led up to a deadly shooting at a gas station in the East Lake-Orient Park area over the weekend.
It happened at the Shell gas station on MLK Jr. Boulevard off I-4 on Saturday night.
“I was so scared,” said Mike Hanna, the gas station’s owner, who quickly got to the scene. “We have a bunch of people. My customers get scared and have a family with their children here sitting beside the road. Really this was very awful.”
Surveillance video shows a car pulling up, several car doors opening, and movement between the people in the car. Eventually, video shows what appears to be a shot fired, and someone takes off in the car.
“We’re going to do what we can to make sure we bring justice to the victims and get answers as to what happened that night,” said Marco Villarreal with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said when deputies arrived, they found one man had been shot. They said he was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Investigators said deputies learned the suspect shot the passenger in the car, and on top of that, they said the suspect attacked the driver before taking off.
Villarreal said they have a good idea of who that suspect is.
“We just know that these two victims somehow knew the suspect, had met the day before, and then something had happened up to the point where they were attacked, the one person was shot, and then their vehicle was stolen,” said Villarreal.
The Sheriff’s Office said the driver was treated and released at the scene and that the victim’s stolen car was quickly recovered nearby.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at (813) 247-8200.