A woman was hospitalized Tuesday night after a reported domestic-related shooting at Harbor Bar on Main Street in Safety Harbor, and a man who fled the scene in a vehicle with his young child was taken into custody shortly afterward. The child was not injured, according to investigators.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to the bar after reports of a “domestic related shooting,” according to FOX 13 News. Deputies arrived around 9 p.m. at Harbor Bar, located at 840 Main Street, per 10 Tampa Bay's sister station, Tampa Bay 28. The outlet's report on the incident was authored by Hadia Moosvi for 10 Tampa Bay.
Man Fled With Child Before Surrendering
According to deputies, the man left the scene in a vehicle with his young child before being found and taken into custody a short time later. The child was reported safe. Investigators have not released the identities of either the man or the woman, and the man in custody has likewise not been named, FOX 13 News reports.
Accounts of the woman's injuries diverge. FOX 13 News reports that investigators have not released her condition, while a separate account from ION Tampa Bay describes her injuries as life-threatening and states she may also have been struck by the fleeing suspect's vehicle. ION Tampa Bay also reports she was transported to Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Sheriff's Office Says No Ongoing Threat
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office described the shooting as an isolated incident with no threat to the public, according to the Tampa Bay 28 report. The investigation remains active and ongoing, the station notes, and no further details about what led to the shooting have been released.
Domestic-violence cases in Pinellas County have historically faced steep hurdles in court. A decade ago, the misdemeanor domestic-violence prosecution rate in the county had fallen to 31 percent, down from 75 percent in 1996, while felony arrests in domestic-violence cases were prosecuted at a rate of just 28 percent, according to data compiled by the Pinellas Domestic Violence Task Force. Those figures, drawn from the county's Odyssey case-management system, predate this week's shooting by a decade and offer no bearing on how this particular case may proceed.
