TAMPA -- The city's assistant police chief is praising the quick action of an off-duty police officer who confronted a man accused of shooting up his apartment complex.
Assistant Chief Ruben Delgado says Officer Gig Brown heard shots Monday evening around 6:45 and rushed to the courtyard of the Metro 510 apartments on East Harrison Street. Brown discovered a man identified as 22-year-old Samario Austin on the fifth floor, armed with a pistol and semi-automatic rifle. Delgado says Brown fired a shot at Austin, who ran toward a stairwell. Other responding officers found Austin back in his sixth-floor apartment. They found a BB gun and ammunition. Shell casings and bullet holes littered the complex.
Austin told police he was given a 30-day eviction notice and Delgado says the tenant was targeting people he was "unhappy with."
Delgado says Brown's quick response likely saved lives. "I can't emphasize enough the heroics of Officer Brown... had he not jumped in, (Austin) would have continued to shoot at that apartment complex, and we don't know what would have happened.
Brown has been on the Tampa police force since 2012 and served as a Hillsborough sheriff's deputy before that.
Photo: Hillsborough Sheriff's Office/ Canva