School Security Elevated as Search for Armed Man Continues

As law enforcement continues to search for an armed man they say sexually assaulted several women and invaded a number of apartments in the University of South Florida area, Hillsborough County School officials are taking no chances.

Schools in the USF are open, but additional security has been called in, the district said in an email to media. If concerns for student safety elevate, a modified lockdown might occur.

The incidents leading up to the school district’s decision began to unfold late in the evening Sept. 5. Just after 11 p.m., the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Florida Hospital stating that two women had come in saying they were sexually battered at their home in the Cambridge Wood Apartments, according to a sheriff’s office media release.

The man, deputies determined, entered the apartment on Shiloh Woods Court, bound four males inside with duct tape and then sexually battered four women.

After fleeing Cambridge Woods, the man is accused of going to Eagle’s Point and conducting a home invasion during which a woman was held at gunpoint. The woman begged the suspect to leave her alone, a media release from the Tampa Police Department said.

“For unknown reasons, the suspect left the female’s apartment without taking anything or assaulting her,” the police department wrote in the release.

While the man left Eagle’s Point without harming the woman, his spree wasn’t over, deputies said.

He then went to the Oaks Apartments on 42nd Street and entered a home where about 25 people were attending a party. Deputies say the man then forced the people into a bedroom at gunpoint and fired at least one round into the carpet.

After leaving that apartment, the man then chased another victim through the Oaks and fired rounds into an apartment door.

The search for the man continues with a perimeter set up in the area of North 42nd Street and Skipper Road.

Stay with Patch for updates as they become available.