TAMPA, Fla. — A man who barricaded himself inside a Tampa apartment is dead after an hour-and-a-half-long standoff, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said.
Officers responded around 3:30 p.m. Thursday to the Meridian Pointe Apartments, located on East Hillsborough Avenue and North 22nd Street, for a follow-up to a separate case.
Bercaw said it was a "harassment type" case but did not specify the details.
The victim in that case told detectives that the suspect was at the apartment complex, prompting officers to go engage with him.
"He takes off running into a building and into an apartment," Bercaw said of the suspect, who he described as a young adult man.
As the officers chased the man, he reportedly shot at them several times. Officers were not hurt but returned fire before the man ran into an apartment occupied by several other people, Bercaw said.
The people were able to safely exit while S.W.A.T. and hostage negotiators went into the apartment.
After an hour and a half with no response from the suspect, officers went into the back bedroom to find the man dead in the closet, according to Bercaw.
"This was a very dangerous situation. There was a ton of kids and families out there. And I can just say thank goodness that everybody in this situation didn’t get in a worse situation," the police chief said.
The medical examiner's office is working to determine how the man died.
“This is very tragic, but on a positive note the officers are ok and the bystanders are ok," Bercaw said.