Christmas Eve got off to a violent start in Tampa, leading to a standoff that spilled right over into Christmas morning.
“Obviously, Christmas is not the best time for something like this to happen or occur,” said Tampa Police Maj. Eric DeFelice.
It was certainly not the way dozens of Tampa police officers, Hillsborough sheriff’s deputies and Motel guests had planned to spend their Christmas Eve and morning.
But at the Rodeway Inn Motel near 50th Street and I-4, Tampa Police say around 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon, 44-year-old Renardo Bucklon shot at someone he’d been arguing with.
“That person came out very early on in the incident and was unharmed,” DeFelice said.
But when police got there, they say Bucklon barricaded himself in one of the motel rooms, and several guests had to be evacuated as a precaution.
It went on for 21 hours.
At about 9:00 p.m. Thursday night, police say they heard a gunshot and started to move closer.
That’s when they say Bucklon fired shots at them striking one of their ballistic shields. No officers were hurt, but the shootout led to nearly a full day of negotiations.
“Twenty-one hours is an extremely long time,” DeFelice said. “You can force things, but when you have time on your side and you’re able to sit back and deploy some different tactics and allow the person to come out on their own, you do whatever you can to make that, you know, happen.”
Between 10 a.m. and noon Christmas morning, the SWAT team could be heard yelling to Bucklon, with their communications punctuated with the intermittent "boom" of flash grenades every few minutes.
“At some point, they figure out that this isn’t going anywhere,” DeFelice said. “This person might be a little more stubborn than we anticipated. And they used some techniques and tactics to make them come out.”
Police say Bucklon was able to walk out of the motel room on his own but was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital for what police described as unspecified injuries.
Tampa Police say Bucklon has an extensive criminal record spanning almost 30 years, with several convictions on weapons and drug charges.
The FDLE is also investigating the incident since it involved an exchange of gunfire between Bucklon and the police.
Hotel guests who’d been evacuated were relieved to finally be allowed back into their rooms.
“Christmas ain’t started yet, put it like that,” said guest Elijah Resheh. “Now we can go in there and do whatever we gotta do. It’s all over with.”
“This is what we do,” DeFelice said. “We had countless officers out here keeping everybody safe even on a holiday. And to be honest I didn’t hear one person complain about it at all. It was a job well done all around.”
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