BRADENTON, Fla. — A man crashed his car through the front doors of the Aspire at Palma Sola nursing home in Bradenton before getting out of the vehicle with a loaded gun.
Just before 3:30 a.m. Friday, a call was made from inside the Aspire at Palma Sola nursing home in Bradenton. A man had crashed into the front doors, got out of his car and loaded a gun. A male employee came out but was met with gunfire. He ran back inside, locking down the facility.
The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said the first call came in around 3:30 a.m. Friday.
As the first two deputies arrived at the scene, the sheriff's office said Sean Francis Calcutti, 40, was still trying to get inside. Deputies said it was dark where Calcutti was standing, and when they made contact with him, they were unable to see his gun as they ordered him to put his hands up.
“This dirtbag decides it’s better to just start firing at my deputies,” Sheriff Rick Wells said during a Friday news conference.
Deputies fired back, but one of them was shot in the arm. The other deputy got him away from the scene to a ne arby Shell gas station.
The wounded deputy was taken to a nearby hospital and is expected to recover.
Back at the scene, deputies set up a perimeter around the nursing home with the help of officers from Bradenton, Palmetto, Holmes Beach, and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit.
More than two hours after the first of several 911 calls came from inside the nursing home, Calcullti was arrested as the gun fell out of his shorts.
“Why he chose to crash into this nursing home, we do not know. Why he choose to shoot at these innocent civilians we do not know, we are investigating that now.” Wells said. “And why he made the decision to shoot my deputies, I can only guess.”
Calcutti had not yet been booked into the Manatee County jail as of Friday afternoon
He has an extensive criminal history, including an attempted murder charge from 2010, which was dismissed by a judge at trial.
“He should not, in my opinion, even be walking the streets of Manatee County,” Wells said. “How that has happened, I don’t know.”
In the mobile home park where Calcutti lives, neighbors would not come to the door or didn’t want to talk about him on camera. One neighbor did say police had been to the suspect's home in recent weeks.
Sean Francis Calcutti will make his first appearance before a judge in Manatee County on Sunday morning.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
