 Good morning, everyone. I just want to give you one more mic check before we get started and introduce the folks that will behind me, giving you the update on what unfolded overnight. We have Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Naco, Florida Highway Patrol Major Rick Benton and Florida Highway Patrol Sergeant Steve Gaskins, Tampa Police Deputy Chief Mike Hunter, State Attorney Suzy Lopez, FDLE Assistant Special Agent in Charge J. Scanlon. So we'll turn it over to Sheriff Chronister first. Sure. Thank you, Amanda. What we were about to describe to you this evening sounds like a movie plot of some big blockbuster action movie. The sad reality is that everything we are about to tell you is true and that several communities were victimized because of this bad guy this evening. I'll turn it over to Sheriff Naco here in just a moment to describe some of the events that led us here this evening. But let me describe what got us here this scene that we're processing behind us. There's a domestic violence situation that begins in Hernando County, goes into Pasco County. As a result, a pursuit is started. A very violent pursuit where several gunshots were fired at law enforcement involved in this pursuit at multiple times through multiple jurisdiction. And as a result, there's a crash here where the bad guy crashes his car into a retention pot. He's able to get out of his car and as he's running across the street and law enforcement's closing in, he begins firing at law enforcement as they're yelling multiple times to drop the gun. We have the Florida Highway Patrol, Pasco County Sheriff's Office and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, along with members of the Tampa Police Department, all involved trying to bring this violent criminal into custody. He ignores these commands and this gunfire exchange begins. For almost four minutes, this gunfire exchange, which is a very long time in a gunfight as he continues to fire back at law enforcement. There are four individuals that are able to exchange gunfire, again, putting their lives in danger to try to bring this violent individual into custody. A member from the Florida Highway Patrol, two members and deputies of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and a member of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office manage to discharge their firearms, again, to stop this individual from continuing his reign of terror throughout multiple jurisdictions this evening. At some point during the gunfire exchange, he's able to continue fleeing. He runs behind this business complex, this building that you see behind me. Deputies grab their shield, they manage the muster and continue their pursuit of this violent offender. As they get behind this complex, they see that he is on the ground as a result of injuries that he has sustained. They're able to render the gun safe, immediately notify emergency medical services who respond, who arrive on scene and begin life-saving measures. He is transported then to the Tampa General Hospital. This suspect, this person who has started and continued this reign of terror and over several years victimized multiple communities has died because of the injuries that he has sustained here behind me this evening. Unfortunately at this time, I'm not able to release his information. We'll be putting this information out here shortly, but his next to kin hasn't been notified, so out of respect to that family, we're going to hold off for just a little bit. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, thank you to them, they are here now. They will now take over this investigation as a result of multiple members of various law enforcement agencies who are now involved in this use of deadly force. I will tell you that at 2.44 this morning, this is when this crash occurred and when this shooting, this gunfire, this lack of respect for any type of human life began. As a community, as a society, we must not and will not ever tolerate any individual who inflicts violence in any form or fashion against another human being. Nonetheless, the peacekeepers who are out here at night protecting our various communities while we're home sleeping and the safety and security from the umbrella that they provide us each and every night. The Sheriff's Deputy who was involved is Nathan Van Dam. He's 31 years of age. He's been employed since 2020. He has no internal affairs history. He has a standard protocol been placed on administrative leave with pay. I also be remiss if I didn't tell you how grateful I was. Grateful. Grateful for the partnership that we share with our state and our surrounding counties and our city of Tampa partners that they came together as well as they did. What you see tonight, the result that no law enforcement officer was injured here this evening, or I should say overnight, is because of the collaborative efforts of every law enforcement agency and how well we work together. The partnerships that we share, I couldn't be more grateful. Couldn't be more grateful and can't believe with this reign of terror that this bad guy has inflicted on this community that I'm happily and grateful to stand here and say that not one law enforcement officer throughout this violent and several minute encounter has sustained any injuries. I will share just a little bit information that I can share about our bad guy, our suspect. He's a 37 year old white male. He has an extensive criminal history. He has at least 18 felony convictions and has served at least four years in a Florida State prison. At this time, I'll turn it over to Sheriff Naco who can who can now share more details about what happened in his county and the pursuit that led us here today. Sheriff Naco. Thank you. I want to greatly thank my friend, Sheriff Chad Chronister, talk about partnerships, you know, Hillsborough, Pasco, you know, the city of Tampa, FDOE, FHP, all involved in this incident and all worked seamlessly together. And that's something, you know, I know there's many people are waking up right now, getting a cup of coffee, wondering how things work together at law enforcement. You know, the partnerships we have, that's what today led to us working very well together. You know, I also want to thank State Attorney Susie Lopez, who's here for us with her leadership down here part of this investigation. Bruce Bartlett, our State Attorney up in Pasco County, because that's part of our crime scene also. And of course, FDOE, FDOE, their partnership, their leadership and then handle this investigation. No, I can't thank them enough for what they do. But that's how I'll go into that a little bit. And the fact that I know people are sitting there going, how did I spoke different places and like Sheriff Chronister says like a movie. But unfortunately, it all started with a victim. And that victim was a victim of domestic violence. So I will say this, if there's anybody out there, the scourge of domestic violence has been with us, it continues to be with us. But if you're a victim of domestic violence, and you're in Pasco County, please notify the Sheriff's office. But also seek assistance with groups like Sunrise Domestic Violence Shelter. Sunrise will be there for you. So, you know, like Sheriff and I were talking about earlier, we don't ever want to forget the one thing. There's several victims here. First and foremost is that victim of domestic violence. The other victims are deputies. They're absolutely victims. And when I tell you describe what happened, you'll see they're victims. And also for the second word of their facts that are families. Their families had to be woken up this morning by saying, hey, honey, just want to let you know I was in a shooting this morning. Nobody ever wants to be woken up in the middle of the night having to hear that. But thank God Almighty that the domestic violence victim, she will survive. The deputies will survive. And we thank God for that. So preliminary information reports that around 1.41 this morning there was an incident in Hernando County. We're still working with Hernando getting some information what occurred there. But at that time, the victim of domestic violence in this case says, I'm going to Pasco County. And so she started driving from Hernando County to Pasco County. She's going to Wesley Chapel. That is where the suspect was involved in the shooting that she has a child in custody with going to her parents' house because they have a child together that was at the house. She was going there to pick up the child for the child. She just wanted to be with her child because of the incident that occurred. As she's going there, it's around 2.14 in the morning. She calls Pasco Sheriff's Office of Pasco County Dispatch. She notifies Pasco County Dispatch that she's at the house. But very shortly, as soon as she's on the phone call, the dispatcher starts hearing screaming. They start hearing shots fired. Our deputies are getting there as quickly as possible. They arrive on scene. As multiple units are arriving on scene, the suspects are shooting at the deputies, start shooting at their vehicles. Thank God Almighty as I go back to it, the suspect was shot at the scene. I believe she's taking surgery right now. We believe it's non-life threatening and I continue. Everybody pray for her this morning. The deputies that were on scene, their vehicles, some of them were shot. They weren't able to get into pursuit. But fortunately, there was another deputy that was coming on scene. He sees that vehicle. He gets in pursuit with that vehicle. It's a long pursuit. But from all indications, that deputy acted unbelievable. Training kicked in. Cool, calm, collective. Calling things out. Making sure everybody was aware. The other credit goes to dispatchers. Because we don't have one regional dispatch. We have multiple dispatch centers. So they have to communicate together. So kudos to everybody in dispatch. Everybody was patching things together. That was a great job. You know, you don't see those things in movies. And I'll go back to Sheriff Cronster's right. This look on movie scenes, there are some similarities. Unfortunately, there is a reality. And that reality is that people got hurt. And had somebody decided to take his own life because of his actions, it was his fault of what happened out there. So the pursuit went through several different areas through Hillsborough County, City of Tampa. Everybody was engaging. I know the sheriff and I were going to be releasing body worn camera later on. But I'll tell you, I'll give you this point right now. For those of you who like movies, you know, don't think things happen like a movie in real life. They don't. Things go bad. Things happen. But training kicked in. You know, the will for our deputies to realize they were being fired upon. But they realized I had to stay in the fight. Because we are out there protecting every citizen right now. We have to make sure that suspect did not flee and cause harm to one of the communities that's in this area. That's the critical thing these deputies do day in and day out. I'll go back to it. The deputies, the training that kicked in, things that happened. The things you'll see in that video are unbelievable. They were heroes out here tonight. And they're heroes every day to go to work, no matter what the shift they do an unbelievable job. But I'm going to make this very clear. This is Tampa Bay. This isn't other parts of the country where law enforcement, you know, are hindered because the elected officials say we don't want you to do anything. We don't want you to go out there protecting citizens because, you know, we're all about that defund the police movement. That's not here in Tampa Bay. In Tampa Bay, we work together our community. We want to make sure everybody's safe. So if you're a criminal in Tampa Bay, know that it doesn't matter what agency you are. It doesn't matter what counties you cross. It doesn't matter what boundaries you're in. We're law enforcement. We're all in this together. And we're all in this together with our citizens. And if you shoot at one of us, we're going to fire back. We will do that. Don't think for once this is another part of the country where people get criminals get away with crime. People like our state attorneys ensure that criminals will be prosecuted. And they do that because the people that work in that sick-o gas station, the people that are working at race track who work 24 hours a day, they have to be safe. And people like this, they can't go running anywhere to gun thinking I could do whatever I want. That's why those domestic violence victims out there realize that there will be consequences when they report it. Because law enforcement in Tampa Bay, we will take care of business. And that business is protecting our citizens. So with that I want to introduce Assistant Special Agent Charles Scanlon from FDLE. Good morning everyone. I would like to start with thanking the brave men and women of all of these agencies that are represented here this morning. Our members live and work in this region as well. We want to thank them for keeping us safe and having that in the forefront of our best interest as well. FDLE has a specific role here as you know. We are going to investigate the use of force. As it happens we have standing agreements with all the agencies involved, Hillsborough County, Pasco County and FHP. I want to thank those agencies individually for how professional they've been this morning. Both sheriffs referenced how the partnerships are critical here and that's true for our role as well. So thank you to them for being open and courteous to us. You know it's not always easy for another agency to kind of come in and take a look under the hood and look at your actions. But I can assure you that all of these agencies are dedicated to public transparency and accountability. And we take that very seriously as well. We have an expert team here that's going to do a thorough independent investigation. Once we've completed that we'll turn it over to the state attorney's office for their review and determination of the use of force. And it's kind of early in the investigation so we don't want to give out more details than the sheriffs have already given. We're still in an early phase of doing interviews and processing the crime scene. Thank you. So yes the victim of domestic violence was shot at the scene of the house in Wesley Chapel. She's in the hospital right now. The victims, law enforcement victims, there was multiple shots that were fired in Pasco County. And as Sheriff Chronister was describing there are several law enforcement victims right here in Hillsborough County. It's critical. Every indication is that she will live, she will be okay. And as I said, I go back to it. By the grace of God, it's God's will. God's will in everything we do in our life. Everything that happens, it's our lives are his. But at the same time as that he decided he wants her to live another day and thank God for that. Eric, he's just right in front of me. Here, check it, check it. I see him. He's all the way up there. He's about 50-100 yards up. He's still Milwaukee right up there. Have eyes on him. He's up here. He's just north of Yankee 6-2 or 5-2's car. He's just north up there. He's fired. We can use your car. Hey, come back here.