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Background: News footage of the home in Ruskin, Fla. where Christopher Lee Brown allegedly shot his sons (WTVT). Inset: Christopher Lee Brown (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office).
A Florida man was charged with several felonies after he allegedly opened fire on his own sons — reportedly over a fight about a family car.
Christopher Lee Brown, 36, was arrested on Sunday after police said he shot his three sons, all of whom are juveniles. According to court documents obtained by local Fox affiliate WTVT, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies responded to calls about a shooting at around 11:15 a.m. on Sunday in Brown’s Ruskin neighborhood. When deputies arrived at the scene, they found Brown’s three sons with gunshot wounds.
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All three boys were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and survived. Their names and ages were not released.
According to the documents, detectives who investigated the shooting stated that the altercation stemmed from an argument about a car. Police said that Brown reportedly confronted his sons about it, then the argument escalated and culminated in the alleged shooting of all three boys.
WTVT reported that Brown allegedly hit one of the boys in the head with the gun, which set the weapon off, sending a bullet across the boy’s jawline and hitting his earlobe. Brown reportedly ran to get into his car while the other two boys chased him. According to the documents, Brown then allegedly fired several shots at the other two boys.
Court documents also stated that one of the boys played investigators a recording from their father left after the alleged shooting, where he said, “I tried to take your life” and “You won’t make it to Wednesday.”
According to WTVT, the state attorney’s office has filed a pretrial motion to keep Brown in custody until trial.
Brown now faces a lengthy list of felony charges — three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, three counts of aggravated battery with great bodily harm or deadly weapon, being a felon in possession of a firearm, discharging a firearm in public or residential property, two counts of burglary of an occupied dwelling, resisting an officer without violence, and criminal mischief (more than $200, less than $1,000).
