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Harrowing footage shows the moment a hero Marine vet stopped a shirtless gunman who had killed a woman at CitiBank’s office in Tampa in a rage over a $2,500 debt.
Jacob Pearson, 35, drove from Orlando to the massive CitiBank office in Tampa after becoming “irate” over receiving a summons on Wednesday, crashed into a gate and shot Leanne Selman, 41, in the courtyard before going back to his car to get a handgun and executing her while she tried to crawl away, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said.
Pearson then stormed the facility’s cafeteria intent on finding more victims but was shot dead by Citibank security guard, John Fraley, who took up a tactical position in the men’s restroom before putting five bullets in the gunman.
“Unless you want me to go over there with my AR 15, my bulletproof vest, and my insanity, you MFing cancel this court case,” Pearson wrote to an attorney’s office contracted for collection by CitiBank, Chronister revealed.
“Do you understand me? There are only an hour and three minutes away, so the last thing you want to do is F with me.
Chronister said that after making the chilling threat, Pearson, a married father of a 7-year-old child with no previous criminal record, left his hometown without telling his family where he was going.
Meanwhile, the attorney’s office contacted the head of security at CitiBank, a retired Secret Service agent, who in turn contacted Orlando Police Department to warn them of Pearson’s threat.
“Would you guys mind going out there and doing a welfare check on this individual?” the head of security asked cops, according to Chronister.
“This certainly doesn’t sound like something any sane person would say.”
By the time officers got there, Pearson had already left for the CitiBank campus in Tampa, where 3,200 employees were working.
The head of security then contacted Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to warn them too, and detectives were sent to the bank’s Tampa headquarters.
As they were arriving on the scene just after noon, they heard gunshots ring out after Pearson had crashed his car through the gate and into the campus courtyard.
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The CCTV footage shows that Pearson got out of his vehicle with a rifle and immediately walked towards Selman –– the first CitiBank employee he could find –– and shot her three times.
When his rifle malfunctioned, he went back to his car, retrieved a handgun, walked back over to the victim while she was trying to get to safety and killed her.
Pearson then appeared to be “calm” as he cleared his rifle malfunction and then made his way into the campus cafeteria, Chronister said.
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He was stopped dead in his tracks by Fraley, who was described as a “highly trained Marine Corps veteran” who serves as a security officer and vice president of operations on the CitiBank security team.
Fraley engaged Pearson a shootout, putting the suspect down with his handgun.
Pearson was taken to Tampa General Hospital but died there, Chronister said.
“He was there, intent on one purpose, and that purpose was to hunt any human being he could find and kill,” Chronister said.
“Because of the heroic actions of this CitiBank security officer, vice president of operations, his reign of terror ended before it even began.”
