A security officer and Marine veteran is being credited with stopping a gunman who drove through a gate at Citibank’s Brandon corporate campus in Hillsborough County and opened fire on employees, killing one woman before he was shot and killed himself.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister identified the security officer as John Fraley during a press briefing Thursday. Chronister said Fraley confronted 35-year-old Jacob Pearson inside the building shortly after Pearson shot and killed a female Citibank employee.
“He is an individual that’s afforded an opportunity to carry a firearm because the ones who were either previous law enforcement or military and have that training. Citibank empowers them to carry a handgun,” Chronister said. “He didn’t have to stop. He could have run and protected his own life, too. He took up a tactical position when he saw the suspect coming and made a decision.”
“That decision put his own life at risk to stop that shooter from harming anyone else,” the sheriff added.
A debt dispute turned deadly
Chronister said Pearson, who was married and had a 7-year-old child, grew violent after receiving a court summons over a delinquent $2,500 credit card debt owed to Citibank. Around 9 a.m. Wednesday, Pearson called an attorney’s office that the bank had contracted for debt collection and allegedly made violent threats before leaving his Orlando home.
“Unless you want me to go over there with my AR-15, my bulletproof vest and my insanity, you m———— cancel this court case. Do you understand me? They are only an hour and three minutes away, so the last thing you want to do is f— with me,” Pearson allegedly said, according to Fox 13.
Citibank’s head of security, a retired Secret Service agent, recognized the threat and took proactive steps, contacting Orlando police for a welfare check and asking the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to send deputies to the Brandon campus.
The attack on campus
Despite those precautions, Pearson drove to the campus and crashed through a gate into a courtyard where employees had gathered. He got out of his sedan with a rifle and shot 41-year-old learning advisor LeAnne Selmon three times before his weapon malfunctioned, Chronister said.
“As he shoots her, his rifle begins to malfunction,” the sheriff said. “This suspect goes back … returns back to his car, retrieves his handgun, walks back over to the victim who’s trying to crawl away with her life and executes her.”
“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.”
Pearson then walked into a cafeteria looking for more victims before encountering Fraley, the sheriff said. Fraley took a tactical position inside a men’s restroom and opened fire, striking Pearson five times.
Pearson was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
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