BRANDON -- A Hillsborough deputy opened fire on a woman the sheriff says was armed and hunting her ex-boyfriend, in a daycare parking lot Monday.
Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister says 39-year-old Terrell Green had pulled up at the Heaven Sent daycare on Kings Avenue around 12:30 p.m., not long after he ran there and asked to use the phone to call 9-1-1. The alleged victim told dispatchers that he had stayed overnight at the apartment to help with an issue involving Green's children. He took a shower and when he got out, he said Green was holding his phone and threatening to kill him, apparently over something she saw. The ex ran out, climbed over a fence and dashed to the daycare as she chased him, gun in hand. He was still talking to deputies when Green arrived at the daycare. Chronister says Green was driving slowly through the parking lot, "hunting" for her ex.
One of the deputies approached and tried to stop the car. As Deputy Michael Castelli shifted to the driver's side, he spotted the gun and yelled "Gun! Gun! Gun!" Deputy Kristina Gautier was telling the victim to get behind the car and the daycare owner to get to safety. Gautier was "forced," Chronister said, to fire. Green was wounded with non-life threatening injuries and taken to Tampa General Hospital. She'll be charged with aggravated assault and false imprisonment.
Deputy Gautier will be on leave as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates the incident.
Chronister praised his deputies, saying they "put themselves in harm's way to make sure no one else was."
Listen to the 911 call (redacted with numerous bleeps) below.
Photo: Hillsborough Sheriff
The scene near a Brandon daycare where Hillsborough deputies shot a woman they say was armed and chasing her ex-boyfriend. Photo: Hillsborough Sheriff's Office