A young man, Christos Alexander Themelis, shot and killed his mother and father before the police killed him in a gunfight.
48-year-old Rebecca Ann Themelis called the police to report that her 50-year-old husband, Christos Byron Themelis, had been shot. While she was speaking with the dispatch center, they could hear further gunshots.
The 19-year-old suspect, Christos Alexander Themelis, and his mother, Rebecca, were already outside the house when deputies arrived at their Tampa, Florida, location on Cactus Wren Place. The defendant fired a bullet into his mother’s head as deputies looked on in shock. He then started firing at the police, wounding one of them. Dramatic body camera footage captured the standoff between the two.
Deputies Shane McGough, 26, radioed that Christos had his mother at gunpoint, and they urged Rebecca to get out of the house. When her son retreats inside the house, McGough tells her to come toward his flashlight. When the son returns, he begs her to get away from him. Her son ultimately executes her.
Cops then demand the son stop reaching into his waistband. It was then that shots began to be fired. McGough gets hit in the leg.
After five cops returned fire, the criminal fled back inside. The police then sent in a robot, and the father was the first to be seen lying on the floor. He later died from his wounds. The suspect was found dead in another part of the residence from injuries he sustained during the gun battle.
Ten separate instances involving mental health services and violence against the suspect’s parents prompted deputies to go to the residence.
