TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Police Department says they have arrested a 21-year-old man who is responsible for shooting at a car that a family of five was sleeping in on Oct. 5., including a pregnant woman.
Detectives say Christopher Stamat Jr. owned the 2012 BMW captured on multiple surveillance videos looking at the area of North Oregon Avenue during the early morning hours when the shooting occurred.
The car was then found in the garage of a home on Marcellus Circle in Tampa, TPD said in a news release.
Stamat reportedly admitted to being the only person who recently drove the car in the area on the morning of the shooting.
Police say they then obtained a search warrant for Stamat's car and home where they found an empty gun box for a handgun in the car and shell casings inside his apartment that matched the casings at the shooting.
The 21-year-old told police that he felt other people were stalking or following him in different cars before he shot at the car the family was sleeping in, authorities say.
"Our community as a whole can sleep easier tonight knowing the suspect linked to this monstrous, random act of violence is no longer free to prey on innocent people," Tampa Police Chief Mary O'Connor said in a statement. "I cannot thank or commend our detectives enough for working so quickly to identify and arrest this suspect."
Stamat is facing six felony charges, including second-degree attempted murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.