Armed Intruder Threatens to Electrocute Occupants

(Update, 7:55 p.m.: Additional police information states the incident was not random; the suspect and occupants were acquainted through a mutual friend.)

A convicted felon on probation was arrested for robbing a New Tampa apartment with a semi-automatic handgun and threatening to electrocute the occupants in a bathtub.

Kevin C. Ellison, 29, of E. Mohawk St., was taken into custody Sunday morning after police say he burglarized an apartment in the gated complex off Compton Road this weekend.

A Tampa Police report says Ellison, who was released from prison in June, entered the unit while a woman and a juvenile were watching television. Pointing his gun at the pair, police said, Ellison demanded money and forced the occupants into the bathroom while he rummaged through the apartment.

Then, the report states, the occupant’s cousin came into the unit and Ellison forced the cousin into the bathroom, too. Ellison allegedly brought the woman into the living room, questioned her about cash and valuables and demanded she take off her clothes.

When the juvenile inadvertently turned on the lights in the bathroom, police said, Ellison forced the woman and the cousin into the bathtub and made the youth sit on the toilet. Ellison told the pair to fill up the bathtub and threatened to throw an electric fan he had plugged in into the tub.

Tampa Police said Ellison shut the bathroom door and left the apartment with electronics, cash and valuables totaling $2,000. He was later identified by authorities and arrested at his home.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Ellison faces a litany of charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, robbery-home invasion, kidnapping, tampering with a witness and being in violation of his probation because he is a felon with a handgun.