BRADENTON, Fla. — Two staff members at a Bradenton nursing home were honored for their heroic efforts in helping to stop an armed man from getting inside the facility.
In the early morning hours of May 24, the Manatee Sheriff’s Office said that Sean Calcullti drove his car into the front entrance of Aspire at Palma Sola rehabilitation center, 6305 Cortez Road W., Bradenton.
A female employee, Alexia Johnson, saw Calcutti get out and load a magazine into a gun.
She alerted a male staff member who came outside, but Calcutti began to shoot at him. He quickly ran back inside and locked down the facility.
Callers to 911 said the suspect, unknown at the time, was shooting at windows of the facility, in an apparent attempt to get in.
Body camera footage released by the sheriff’s office shows deputies arriving on scene and speaking with that male staffer, Sam Lloyd. The first three deputies on scene found the suspect behind the medical office building next door and ordered him to the ground.
Instead, Calcutti fired his gun. His face is not visible in the body camera footage.
Deputies Michael Davis, Stephen Cook, and Robert Pereyra returned fire, even after Davis was shot in the arm.
Focusing on getting Davis help, they lost the suspect. About two hours later, reports said Calcutti was arrested, the gun falling out of his pocket.
On Tuesday, those three deputies returned to the Aspire Living for the first time since the shooting.
All three, along with Lloyd and Johnson were honored by Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells, Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown, and Aspire Living management for their valor that day.
Calcutti is being charged with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, attempted murder, armed burglary, aggravated assault, and resisting an officer without violence. He remains in custody at the Manatee County jail, where he is being held without bond.
In an unrelated criminal case against Calcutti for a burglary charge just a month before, his public defender has filed documents suggesting he may be incompetent to stand trial.
In the June 11-dated court filing, his attorney said that Calcutti suffers near constant hallucinations.
“Defendant has suffered from a disease, illness, injury or addiction which may have caused or is a contributing factor to defendant’s apparent mental illness,” the public defender wrote.
Calcutti also appears to be suffering from some mental or emotional disorganization which is causing him to distort reality with delusions of his own actions, his attorney said.
“You threw my son under the bus. You didn't take care of him.”
The State of Florida and the VA are under scrutiny after the Baker Act was used incorrectly on a young veteran who went to a Florida VA hospital for help.
