A gunman who killed a woman before being fatally shot by a security guard at Citibank’s sprawling office complex in Tampa targeted the campus because he was angry over a $2,500 debt collection, a sheriff said Thursday.
About three hours before Wednesday’s shooting, Jacob Pearson called an attorney affiliated with Citibank and threatened violence, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told a news conference.
On the phone, Pearson demanded that the lawyer cancel a court hearing over Pearson’s unpaid credit card debt “unless you want me to go over there with my AR-15, my bulletproof vest and my insanity,” Chronister said.
I did not realize that, but it also has no real bearing on my point. In a society where those in power face no real consequences from those they have power over, violence is inevitably. We will see more of this as days go on. Its not my intention to make a hero out of the gunman, but rather to remind myself that those in power are the ones that perpetuate this system of violence.