Shooting pellets leads to arrest

A man who bought a pellet gun is arrested after a sheriff's deputy walking his dog hears shots.

By ED QUIOCO, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 23, 2003

LARGO -- Sheriff's Deputy Andrew Delay was walking his dog Bubba on Monday night when he heard shots whizzing by and hitting a nearby fence and metal trash bin.

Delay dove for cover and called 911 on his cell phone.

"He thought he was being shot at," said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Greg Tita.

Delay wasn't hit, but deputies and Largo police officers cautiously entered the Farrington Apartments on Roosevelt Boulevard. After an investigation, they determined that the shots came from a pellet gun and arrested an 18-year-old.

Jason Zumpf, who lives at the complex, was hiding under a pile of clothes in a closet when deputies arrived to ask him about the incident, Tita said. Investigators found a pellet gun that looked like a 9mm handgun stashed in a storage bin in the closet.

When Largo police officers arrived at the complex, they told deputies that they had responded to the same address for a similar complaint in the past and that Zumpf recently had bought a pellet gun. Zumpf also matched the description witnesses gave to deputies.

Delay suffered minor bruises when he dove for cover, Tita said.

Zumpf was charged with aggravated assault, possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia, and two counts of violation of probation for charges of DUI and driving while his license was suspended or revoked.

Zumpf was held Tuesday at the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $7,300 bail.

He told deputies that he recently bought the pellet gun for $55 at a Wal-Mart, authorities said. Zumpf also told deputies that he did not mean to shoot at the deputy.

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