Citi shooter was enraged over Best Buy credit-card debt suit
- Key insight: The motive for a deadly shooting at a Citi office campus appears to have involved a small claims lawsuit over a delinquent credit-card debt.
- Supporting data: Court documents show the suspect owed $2,556.40 on his Best Buy Visa Platinum card, which was issued by Citibank.
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The root of a shooting that left a Citi employee in Tampa, Florida, dead appears to be a $2,500 debt on a Best Buy credit card.
Police say Jacob Pearson, a 35-year-old Orlando man, called an attorney contracted by Citi at about 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, furious over a court summons he’d received concerning the delinquent debt. Court documents show Pearson owed $2,556.40 on his Best Buy Visa Platinum card, which was issued by Citibank.
He allegedly threatened the bank in vivid detail.
“Unless you want me to go over there with my AR-15, my bulletproof vest and my insanity, you MF-ing cancel this court case,” Pearson told the attorney, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. “They are only an hour and three minutes away, so the last thing you want to do is F with me.”
Court records show Citi sued Pearson in small-claims court over the delinquent debt on Oct. 23. His wife, Stephanie Pearson, was served the summons on Oct. 29.
Less than a week later, police say, Pearson made his menacing phone call. Three hours after that, he arrived at Citi’s Tampa campus, a hub for the bank’s anti-money-laundering operations, global banking functions, private bank and other lines of business.
Shirtless and armed with an AR-15 rifle, a handgun and 90 rounds of ammunition, Pearson allegedly terrorized the campus and fatally shot human resources worker LeAnne Selman, 41.
This is not the first time banks have come under attack by gunmen in recent years. In 2018, a shooter
After Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down on the street in Midtown Manhattan in 2024,
At a press conference on Thursday, Hillsborough County, Florida, police offered some details on how the violence in Tampa unfolded.
After Pearson’s 9 a.m. call, the attorney contracted by Citi immediately called Citi’s head of security, who then called the police, according to Chronister.
The Orlando Police Department sent officers to Pearson’s house to do a welfare check, according to the authorities. When they got there, Pearson had already left in his car. His wife told officers he seemed angry.
At that point, Orlando police allegedly called the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, which covers the Tampa area. The Hillsborough office then sent two officers to Citi’s campus.
At 12:10 p.m., the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said, Pearson crashed his vehicle through the gate of the Citi campus and walked into the courtyard.
He then allegedly approached Selman, who was the first Citi employee he encountered, and shot her. At that point, his rifle began to malfunction.
“This suspect goes back, returns back to his car, retrieves his handgun, walks back over to the victim, who’s trying to crawl away with her life, and executes her,” Chronister said.
Less than a minute later, Pearson entered Citi’s cafeteria, where the office’s employees had been having lunch but were now frantically fleeing. As the shooter struggled with his malfunctioning rifle, an armed Citi security guard named John Fraley, 38, shot Pearson five times, killing him.
About 3,200 Citi employees were at the Tampa campus that day, police said. Chronister emphasized that if Fraley, who is also a vice president of operations at Citi, had not taken action, there could have been a “much greater loss of life.”
“Because of the heroic actions of this Citibank security officer, vice president of operations, [Pearson’s] reign of terror ended before it even began,” the sheriff said.
According to the sheriff, a sheriff’s deputy and supervisor arrived at the scene around noon — but the shooting had already begun.
“As he’s arriving on scene, the supervisor hears gunshots,” Chronister said.
The sheriff’s office declined to answer questions seeking a more detailed timeline of events. An active investigation of the incident is underway, the office said.
Selman was pronounced dead at the scene. She was a learning advisor in Citi’s human resources department, and had been with the bank for nine years.
“She was valued. She was beloved,” Edward Skyler, Citi’s head of public affairs, said during Thursday’s press conference. “She was described as a bright light, and her colleagues and all of us are grieving.”
Selman was also a performance artist and a fixture of the Tampa Bay dance scene,
“She truly was a beautiful person that deserves to be honored for all of her talents and kindness and the good that she brought into the world,” Abby Albaum, who helped coach Selman, told WTVT. Citi said it was in touch with Selman’s family, and asked for privacy for them as they grieve.
“We are heartbroken to confirm the loss of LeAnne Selman, who was a valued member of our Citi family,” the bank told American Banker by email. “Our deepest sympathies are with LeAnne’s family, friends and colleagues during this unimaginably difficult time.”
