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Deputies: Man in hospital after conflict at home

By Times Staff Writer
Published April 22, 2005

HOLIDAY - A 20-year-old man was in a hospital Thursday after he terrorized a gathering at a home on Oak Bluff Avenue late Wednesday, Pasco sheriff's officials said.

The man had been visiting the home but was asked to leave after acting in a vulgar manner, reported sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin. He stressed Thursday that the case still was being investigated and that the following information was preliminary:

Before leaving the home in his teal Volkswagen about 9 p.m., the man threatened to kill everybody in the house. For about an hour, the man kept driving by the house, taunting its residents.

Finally, he ran over the home's mailbox, then turned around and smashed through the a 6-foot privacy fence into the home's back yard. He then crashed into a Mercury convertible parked in the yard.

He backed out, drove down the road, then returned and smashed through the privacy fence again, this time nearly running down one of the home's guests.

A 23-year-old man tried to reach into the car and take the keys, and he dangled out the window as the assailant tried to ram the Mercury again. Then the 23-year-old's father came outside with a 9mm handgun and began shooting at the Volkswagen's tires. The dad ran over and hit the assailant in the head with the gun.

As deputies arrived, the man ran away. With the help of a search dog, deputies soon found him in a yard about a block away with a head wound, drifting in and out of consciousness. He was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg.

Tobin did not release the man's identity. Deputies found cocaine in the Volkswagen's glove box. Charges were pending further investigation.

[Last modified April 22, 2005, 00:44:19]