A 19-year-old “monster” killed his parents in their Florida home and then shot a police officer in a shootout. It was caught on the injured deputy’s body camera. That was before the boy was shot and killed Saturday night.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, in a surreal scene just after 11 p.m., Christos Alexander Themelis Jr. shot and killed his father, 51-year-old Christos Byron Themelis, inside their home and then shot and killed his mother, 48-year-old Rebecca Ann Themelis, in the front yard, in front of police officers.
Sheriff Chad Chronister said officers initially rushed to the home after receiving a “frantic” 911 call from the shooter’s mother reporting that her son had shot her husband as more gunfire rang out.
The son brutally shot his mother in the head as she was in the front yard and told by police to walk over to him, then fired shots at responding officers, the video shows.
An officer can be heard yelling at the boy to “stop reaching for his waistband” just before the boy begins firing.
Deputy Shane McGough, 26, was shot in the leg during the shootout, authorities said.
Colleagues quickly applied a tourniquet to his leg and administered life-saving measures before he was rushed to a local hospital.
“I’ve been shot,” McGough said, wincing in pain, according to body camera footage.
Temelis was shot in a shootout with four other officers and, critically wounded, crawled back inside the house and barricaded himself inside.
A sheriff’s SWAT team entered the home a short time later and found Themeris and his father dead from gunshot wounds, Chronister said.
Temelis is believed to have died from wounds sustained in the shootout.
McGough, a two-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, is in stable condition and underwent surgery Sunday morning to remove a bullet from his leg.
Chronister said the shooter has had previous run-ins with police that resulted in his gun being confiscated.
“How did he obtain a firearm to commit this violence here tonight?” he asked, calling the shooter a “monster.”
Chronister called the situation “absolutely terrifying.”
“There is no doubt that the swift response of our deputies reduced the threat to the area,” he said in a statement.
