GIBSONTON, Fla. — The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office arrested a man after they say he confessed to shooting and killing an elderly family member of his on Monday.
At 10:15 a.m., the sheriff's office says it received a phone call from 49-year-old Robert Ashcraft who claimed to have shot a relative and wanted to turn himself in.
"It's out of left field. It's really odd that it happened. He was just sitting there calmly about it afterwards," Kara Evitte said.
Evitte and her family live across the street. She says her family heard what sounded like fireworks before her husband saw their neighbor outside late Monday night.
"My husband nodded at him. He was on the porch. Everything was fine. He then didn't make it two houses down with our dog when the cops come flying in," Evitte said.
Ashcraft reportedly told the dispatcher that he was unarmed on the front porch waiting for the deputies to arrive. Once on scene in Gibsonton, the agency explains deputies found the family member on the bed with a gunshot wound to her head.
"We knew if he got arrested that it was probably his mother he had shot. Come to find out he did kill her. She had warned her sister that she was getting in more and more arguments and more fights were happening," Evitte said.
But it's still unclear what led up to the shooting. The 49-year-old was arrested and is facing charges of premeditated first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon.
"We are grateful our dispatcher was able to keep the suspect calm, and on the phone until our deputies arrived to make an arrest," Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement "This is a horrible situation, and I'm saddened by this senseless tragedy."