A Palm Harbor woman who spent nine years working in human resources at Citibank was killed Wednesday when a gunman crashed through the campus gate in Tampa and opened fire. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister identified the shooter as Jacob Pearson, 35, of Orlando, and said Pearson had threatened the bank that morning after receiving a court summons over roughly $2,500 in debt. Leanne Selman, 41, was pronounced dead at the scene. Four other people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released.
Armed security guard John Fraley, 38, a Marine Corps veteran, confronted Pearson and shot him. Pearson died at Tampa General Hospital. Chronister credited Fraley directly, calling him “a hero, plain and simple.” The timeline the sheriff described stretches from a morning phone threat to a vehicle through the gate at 12:10 p.m., with shots fired roughly a minute later.
For anyone who works at a large campus, in Tampa or right here on the Suncoast, this story raises hard questions about how threat warnings travel inside a company and who decides when employees hear about them. Selman’s family is left with a sheriff’s line that stays with you: she went to work like any other day and never came home. What would you want your employer to do if a threat like this came in on a Tuesday morning? Sound off on our Facebook page.
