Officials shared that a man accused of firing a gun at a car on Wednesday showed signs of paranoia before opening fire at a pregnant woman and her family sleeping in the vehicle.
Tampa Police Chief Mary O'Connor shared that 21-year-old Chirstopher Stamat Jr. was arrested in connection to the shooting.
The family, who police said does not have a home, were sleeping in a vehicle parked across from the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Complex when Stamat allegedly opened fire.
One of the more than a dozen shots Stamat allegedly fired struck a pregnant mother of three other children in the head, according to police. They shared that the injury was not life-threatening, but she was still hospitalized for the wound as of Sunday.
Inside the car was the father of the other children, a 9-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy, and a 3-year-old girl. Police shared that the gunfire hurt no one else inside the car.
The family had just moved back to Tampa but were living in a rental car as they did not have a place to stay. Tampa police shared that they had helped them find shelter after the shooting.
"The children are, in fact, in Florida with family but not in Tampa anymore," O'Connor said.
While investigating the shooting, police discovered the shooting was caught on surveillance cameras in the area. In addition, the footage showed the suspect's vehicle, a 2012 BMW owned by Stamat.
After finding the car at Stamat's girlfriend's residence, police investigated, and he admitted he was the only person to drive the car recently and did so the morning of the shooting.
Inside the car, police found an empty gun box for a 9mm handgun, and inside the home, they found shell casings that matched those recovered from the crime scene.
They have not found the weapon itself, but the evidence did result in the arrest of Stamat.
"Our community as a whole can sleep easier tonight knowing the suspect linked to this monstrous, random act of violence is no longer free to prey on innocent people," O'Connor said Saturday. "I cannot thank or commend our detectives enough for working so quickly to identify and arrest this suspect."
Stamat did give a motive for the shooting, but O'Connor shared on Sunday that his girlfriend reported him showing signs of paranoia before the shooting.
"It really doesn't matter," she said. "You take a gun, and you unload it on a family. We can't really sit back and try to figure out the 'why' on that. There's really zero tolerance for that kind of behavior."
Stamat was charged with four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of second-degree attempted murder, and one count of shooting into a vehicle.
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