Editor's note: The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office released body camera footage and 911 recordings connected to the response of a shooting at the Citibank Center campus in Brandon.

By Tony Marrero, Dan Sullivan, Alexa Coultoff, Juan Carlos Chavez and Eduardo A. Encina

Source Tampa Bay Times

Adara Evans and some co-workers were having lunch in an outdoor courtyard on the sprawling Citibank Center campus in Brandon on Wednesday when she heard a loud bang. A gray car came crashing through a fence, plowing into tables.

Evans ran.

She headed into a nearby building while thinking of her sister, who does the same job as a fellow analyst for the banking giant.

“I just thought to myself, ‘I have to find my sister to make sure she’s OK,’” said Evans, 22.

As she fled, Evans heard gunshots.

Evans was among some 3,200 employees on the campus in the Sabal Park business complex shortly after noon when a man drove through a fence and into an outdoor patio, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

The suspect got out of the car and shot a woman, killing her, Chief Deputy Frank Losat said in a news conference. He then entered a cafeteria, where he exchanged fire with a Citi security guard, Losat said.

The guard shot the suspect, who died at Tampa General Hospital.

Losat said four other people were hurt. He didn’t have more information about their injuries or conditions.

Investigators were working to confirm the identity of the suspect and notify the family of the woman who was killed. The sheriff’s office called the shooting a “targeted” incident, but Losat said detectives were working to determine the gunman’s motive and whether he specifically targeted the person he killed.

“This is a sad day for everybody involved,” Losat said.

Videos and a still image shared with the Tampa Bay Times appear to show a gray sedan with its hood crushed amid toppled patio furniture in the courtyard.

A short clip shows a man striding into an open-air space wielding a long gun as people shout, “He’s coming!”

Another video shared with the Times shows a man getting out of the car with what appears to be a handgun in one hand and a long gun in the other. The man, dressed in an unzipped hoodie and jeans and wearing sunglasses, walks over to a person on the ground and appears to shoot the person several times at close range before walking away. The video captures what sounds like at least five gunshots.

The chain of events sent panicked people running as hundreds of deputies and other first responders converged on the campus near East Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Interstate 75. Phones lit up with a security alert about an active shooter, urging people to shelter in place. Loved ones of employees on the site also rushed to the scene, waiting for word.

The sheriff’s office received several 911 calls at 12:11 p.m., and the first deputy arrived a minute later, according to Losat. The security guard got into a shootout with the suspect about 12:15 p.m.

Citi, which is headquartered in New York, has occupied the campus since 1998, and more than 10,000 employees work there. There are 10 buildings on the campus, including two parking garages and a daycare center, according to the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser’s office.

In a statement to employees Wednesday evening, CEO Jane Fraser called the shooting a “terrible tragedy for our Citi family.”

“My heart goes out to our colleague’s loved ones, all our colleagues in Tampa and everyone affected by this horrific act of violence,” Fraser wrote. “I am grateful to the brave actions of our security team who prevented this awful day from being even worse.”

Citi is “working closely with local law enforcement” and increasing security at other sites as necessary, Fraser said. Counseling and other resources are also available to employees.

After the shooting, sheriff’s deputies carried long guns as helicopters circled overhead. Hundreds of employees gathered in the parking lot, most of them with phones held to their ears.

Blesson Mullappally was eating lunch outside near the cafeteria when he saw a car crash through the fence and into tables and chairs. He paused, then heard colleagues screaming. He followed the crowd inside to find safety.

Amabila Kuenzig, a Citi employee, said workers began running and looking for their friends once they heard reports of a possible active shooter.

Kuenzig said Citi employees receive active shooter training every year to learn how to stay safe during emergencies like this one.

“That’s basically what we did,” she said.

One of her friends suffered a panic attack, she said, and was checked by paramedics.

Citi employee Sergio Linares said police were already on the scene as people evacuated. The officers, he said, responded quickly.

“People were trying to get out as soon as they could,” Linares said. “But as you can imagine, there was a lot of fear.”

Linares said he checked on his team to make sure everyone was accounted for.

“Thank God everyone is safe,” he said.

Across the street from the Citi complex, Mayra Escobar sat on a curb waiting for her mother to leave the building.

Speaking with a reporter, she jumped up and said, “Oh my God, finally!”

Escobar, 32, ran across the row of ambulances to embrace her mom, Monica Escobar. The two conversed in Spanish.

Monica Escobar, an analyst for Citi for 20 years, said she works in a building near where the shooting happened and initially thought there was a fire or practice drill of sorts.

“I thought that until I heard, ‘Run, run, shooter!’” she said.

Nearby, Kathy Escalante waited anxiously outside the Sheraton Tampa Brandon Hotel, clutching a phone as her daughter messaged from inside.

“My daughter is in there,” Escalante said. “She said that a car drove through one part of the building and he got out and started shooting. They won’t tell us nothing else. She said she’s in a safe place but I don’t know. I’m still shaking.”

Evans, the woman who fled from the courtyard to find her sister, just joined the company in July. She reacted quickly, something she attributes to lockdown drills at school when she was growing up in Orlando.

“The noise was so loud, when I saw and heard the impact I was gone,” Evans said. “Right when I heard the bang, I felt in that moment that something bad was going to happen.”

She wondered for a split second if maybe the incident involved a drunken driver.

“But just something happening in that setting, with a lot of people around, I had this feeling that it wasn’t an accident,” she said.

Evans made it into Building F, where her sister works, and reunited with her.

“It’s just really disheartening how much this happens in our country,” she said. “Growing up in Florida, the fact that we’ve had lockdowns and been practicing for school shootings as kids is not something we should be proud of.”

Times staff writers Hannah Farrow, Kiley Petracek, Camila Jose Gomez, Justin Garcia, Divya Kumar, Michaela Mulligan and Bill Varian contributed to this report.

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