WIMAUMA, Fla. – A single shot killed a murder suspect, who was barricaded inside a shed in Wimauma while holding his girlfriend hostage.
Hillsborough deputies responded to the property after the suspect, 42-year-old Juan Sarmiento, called his friend to help him “dispose of some trash.”
The trash was a human body.
Sarmiento’s friend arrived at the home and saw a body in the backseat of a car and called the sheriff’s office.
Deputies arrived on the scene and could hear voices coming from a small shed in the yard.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said the deputies banged on the door, asking the people to come and Sarmiento started using profanity and said he had a hostage in the shed.
“He became even more hostile. He was talking about, “I promise I will die here today. I’m not coming out, and I’m not letting the hostage out,'” Chronister said.
At some point during the over 9-hour standoff, Sarmiento showed himself from the shed’s window and a SWAT member took a single shot at the man, taking him down, and removing the girlfriend from harm’s way.
According to authorities, medics began life-saving measures on Sarmiento and transported him to a local hospital where he died from the gunshot.
“Ultimately, this is never the outcome we want to see in incidents such as these,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister. “Thanks to the brave actions of the friend who called our dispatch center to report the shooting, we were able to save a woman who was held hostage and was potentially in a life-threatening situation.”
The murder victim has not yet been identified. We will update this story as more details are released.
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