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She was sipping coffee on her Zephyrhills porch when she saw an officer shot in the shoulder

 
From her home near Zephyrhills, Pamela Caro, 71, witnessed the struggle that led to the shooting an off-duty Tampa reserve officer Wednesday. She called 911. [PAIGE FRY   |   Times]
From her home near Zephyrhills, Pamela Caro, 71, witnessed the struggle that led to the shooting an off-duty Tampa reserve officer Wednesday. She called 911. [PAIGE FRY | Times]
Published May 29, 2019

ZEPHYRHILLS — As she sat on the porch with her morning cup of coffee, Pamela Caro thought she was watching road rage — one guy kicking up dirt and rocks trying to pass another.

But over the sound of the rock music playing from her radio, she soon heard a man scream, "Stay on the ground!"

She saw one guy down, saw him get up, saw him fall again. She heard gunfire and saw a guy run away.

"Then I thought, 'Oh, my God! Somebody's been shot.'" She called 911 from the porch and stayed on the phone until deputies arrived.

Caro, 71, who has lived seven years amid the oak and Spanish moss shading her property outside Zephyrhills, was watching a struggle that ended when an off-duty reserve officer with the Tampa Police Department inadvertently shot himself in the shoulder with his own weapon.

The officer had witnessed a minor hit-and-run accident moments earlier in downtown Zephyrhills. He followed the suspect until the man pulled over at the spot along the dirt stretch of 23rd Street where Caro lives, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

"A brief verbal altercation turned into a physical altercation," and the officer pulled his weapon, sheriff's Capt. Tait Sanborn said during a news conference at the scene. "As they continued to wrestle around, the officer inadvertently discharged his firearm into his shoulder."

"READ MORE: Nationally, number of people hurt in firearms accidents is flat. In Florida, it's soaring.

The officer was taken to a hospital by helicopter with an injury that was not life-threatening.

The suspect fled on foot and was later detained. An investigation was still under way Wednesday and no arrest had been made.

Deputies did not identify the officer or the suspect. Tampa police wouldn't name the officer, either.

Whether Tampa police conduct an internal investigation into the discharge of the gun will await results of the Pasco sheriff's investigation, said spokesman Steve Hegarty.

The shooting marked the second time in a month that a law enforcement officer's gun discharged inadvertently in Pasco County. On April 30, a school resource officer was leaning against a wall of the Weightman Middle School cafeteria in Wesley Chapel when his service weapon fired while still in its holster. A single round struck the brick wall behind him. No one was injured.

The Zephyrhills hit-and-run occurred about 10:30 a.m. along Fifth Avenue. Capt. Sanborn said it wasn't immediately clear why the suspect in the black Lincoln fled. The off-duty officer followed in a Honda until the suspect pulled over along 23rd and they both got out of their cars.

Why this spot wasn't clear, Sanborn said. Nor did he know whether the officer identified himself.

It didn't appear as if the suspect was trying to grab the gun during their struggle, Sanborn said. He was apprehended within the perimeter deputies had set up around the shooting scene, with help from nearby residents, Sanborn said.

The main concern of the Sheriff's Office was for the health of the officer who was shot.

"We certainly applaud this gentleman for not only being civic minded but for his attention to duty," Sanborn said. "We're certainly relieved it did not turn out worse."

One woman who lives near the shooting scene, Rebecca Spivey, 45, took little note at what appeared to be the officer's weapon firing Wednesday morning.

"I heard a gunshot, but it's normal for us," Spivey said.

She and her family jokingly call the neighborhood the "wild, wild 23rd Street," in part because of people target practicing and shooting at coyotes.

After all the commotion Wednesday from law enforcement and news crews just three houses away, Pamela Caro still thought she had witnessed a road rage incident. A reporter filled her in later in the afternoon.

People are always speeding along 23rd, and now and then they crash, Caro said. Her next-door neighbor tries to smooth it down from time to time.

But as the struggle unfolded before her Wednesday morning, she did suspect she might be witnessing something other than road rage.

It was the man screaming orders.

"You don't hear nothing like that around here."

Staff writers Kavitha Surana and Dennis Joyce contributed to this report. Contact Paige Fry at pfry@tampabay.com. Follow @paigexfry.