Law&Crime Sidebar - Florida Teen Kills Parents, Wounds Deputy After Guns Taken Away: Sheriff

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Authorities in Tampa, Florida say three people are dead and a deputy is injured after a shooting over Father’s Day weekend. Christos Themelis Jr. allegedly shot and killed his father, Christos Themelis Sr. inside their home, then held his mother, Rebecca Ann Themelis, at gunpoint as deputies tried to talk him down. The Hillsborough County sheriff says Themelis shot at deputies, hitting one in the leg, before he was hit by return fire. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses the case and the protection order allegedly in place with former NYPD sergeant Joe Giacalone.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you experienced adverse side effects after taking Ozempic or another weight loss medication, check your eligibility to file a claim by visiting https://www.glp1case.com/sidebar/?v=osb16Download EarnIn today in the Google play or Apple app store. When you download the EarnIn app type in Law and Crime under PODCAST.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Hey, he's got her at gunpoint. Let me just warn everyone the details I have are extremely graphic. An investigation is underway right now in Hillsborough County Florida after a 19-year-old allegedly killed his own parents, shot a deputy, and died in a firefight with police. We're breaking down the rapid escalation that night and why the sheriff is so focused on how this suspect got a gun. We break it down with former NYPD sergeant Joseph

Jackalone. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Hey there, everybody. This is another law and crime legal alert. Have you experienced severe gastroporesis or other side effects after taking OZempic or another GLP1 weight loss medication, the OZempic lawsuits allege that the drug can lead to severe intestinal blockage and persistent vomiting and that manufacturers allegedly failed to provide adequate warnings about these risks. Well, true law, one of our legal sponsors, is helping those injured file a claim through an experienced attorney who helps ensure your claim is thoroughly presented. Visit glp1 case.com slash sidebar to answer less than 10 questions and check your eligibility to file a claim.

Police and Sheriff's deputies in Tampa, Florida, dealt with a very terrifying situation last weekend. This is when a woman called 911 and said her 19-year-old son, Christos Themilis Jr., had shot his father, and that 51-year-old Christos Themilis Sr. was dead. First responders, they rushed to the scene. They tried to de-escalate the situation, but Themilus was resistant. He was holding his mother, 49-year-old Rebecca and Themilus at gunpoint, and he ended up killing her as well. Now take a look at some of this body cam footage from Hillsborough County Deputy's response, where you'll see how this went down. Show me your head!

Show me your fucking hands! Ma'am, get out of the house now! Ma'am, walk out of the house with your hands up! Ma'am, get out of the house now! Walk towards me! Hey, move to this truck. The mom, yeah, I'm staying here. The mom's right.

Mom's 97 with the sun. Stay back, they got a gun. Hey, he's got her at gunpoint. Listen, we don't want to hurt you, okay? Just let your mom walk to us. Let her walk to us, okay? Keep your hands up. Do not reach behind your back.

Keep your hands up. Okay, where's the gun? Do not reach for it. It's going back in the house. Ma'am, come here. If she separates from him, ma'am, come here. Ma'am, walk to me. Walk to my flashlight.

He's got, does he have the gun? Ma'am, come here now. Come here now. now he just popped out with the gun ma'am get away from him now and come here listen keep your hands up stop reaching in your waistband and we stopped the video before the gun fire erupts but amid those screams there were at least four distinct shots that were hurt and the deputy who's wearing the body cam, he was hit in the leg. I'm hit, turnicot, turnicot, turnicot, turnicot, turnic, turn it, turnic, turn it, turnic, I'm hit.

I'm hit. One, two, three, come on. I got one leg, come on. I'm good. Get the grass. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.

Now, this 19-year-old, he died in the course of this gunfire, but ABC Action News, WFDS, reported that that injured deputy, Shane Magoo, 26 years old with two years of service. He was operated on. They were able to remove the bullet, and he is looking at a full recovery. It will take several months. We are wishing him the best. Thankfully, he survived this. The other reported deputies involved in this shooting are Deputy Brandon Shade, 26 years old, one year of service. Deputy Richard Ziegler, 33 years old, nine years of service. Deputy Bajar Atkins, 38 years old, 13 years of service. And deputy Sierra Mansada, 34 years old, two years of service. I want to bring in former NYPD sergeant Joe Jackalone to get his insight into this situation. Joe, good to see you. Before we would start, tell everybody the show that you have because I encourage everybody to check it out. Hi, Jesse, yes. True Crime with the Sarge can be found on YouTube and we do all kinds of interviews and stuff like that. Yeah, it's a great show. I want people to know more about it. And I want to have your perspective on this because first of all, we don't

sometimes highlight law enforcement enough here. But if you heard me read out who the deputies are, and their levels of experience walking into a situation like that where they are responding with gunfire and they're at that situation. What's that like? Yeah, it's something that, you know, classroom training can't prepare you for. It's just one of those things where you you just walk into something or you get called to something. I've been there. It's extremely difficult to deal with, especially in a hostage situation, which is very similar to what I had to deal with. But the issue that comes down to is that these deputies, based on their ages, they're a little bit older, right? So they, you know, not that much experience, which we normally see in shootings.

It's kind of a phenomenon that we don't really understand. But they did a pretty good job. I mean, they tried to slow this down. They try to engage in some conversation, you know, waiting for other people to arrive. And unfortunately, it ended the way it did. It did. By the way, it's being reported that none of those officers have any prior use of force experience. Yep. That's something that we've seen over and over again. Even for me, when I was involved in my shooting, I was only had about two years on the job, too.

Because, you know, generally these jobs, you know, patrol work is for the cops that don't have that much experience yet. You have to learn to get up to the ranks of detectives and stuff like that. And that's probably the answer why we see this time and time again. So Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Kronister. He gave an update to reporters early Sunday morning. Let's take a listen. Let me just warn everyone, the details I have are extremely graphic, also very preliminary of what we know and what we believe happen here this evening. This monster that we encountered tonight isn't just responsible for injuring our deputy. He's also the subject who killed his own mother and father. Now, how did we get here this evening? A little after 11 p.m. this evening, we get a frantic 911 call.

from a mother, a mother who tells our dispatcher that her son just shot his father, her husband. During the exchange of communication, this dispatcher can hear more gunfire in the background. Our deputies get here within three minutes. Our bad guy at this time walks up behind the mom and shoots his own mother in the back of the head. At that time, he decides to exchange gunfire

with our deputy sheriffs. We know at least five of our deputies had returned fire. During this exchange of gunfire, one of our deputies get shot in the lower extremities. Just, I mean, really a detailed explanation was happening harrowing when you think about it, but a son killing his parents like that, what do you make of that?

Well, there is some information that he has a history of mental illness, right? So the police have been there, I believe it was 10 times that they have said. They actually had guns removed from the house previously, so that's another part of the investigation. But we've seen this kind of event happen, and quite recently we've seen a couple of horrific events where sons have killed at least one parent and sometimes both. And it's unfortunately sometimes that anger or what have you is directed to the people that are closest to them. And then the sheriff, Sheriff Cronister, he also explained how the deputies were able to make entry into that home.

So we send our robot in. The front door, we're able to make entries to win the robot in. Unfortunately, the first person we encountered on the ground is the father. The father had succumbed to his injuries as a result of the violent manner in which his son took his life, shot his own father. So at this point, the robot can't get in the house any further. We tell the SWAT team to go in, clear the house. They make contact with our suspect in one of the other rooms in the house. He is also, it appears, succumb to his injuries when he made the choice to exchange gunfire with our deputy sheriffs.

Since 2021, we've had at least 10 calls for service at this residence. The son lived with his mother and father. He is 19 years of age. And during the 10 calls for service, the two calls for service that are the predominant calls for service, or mental health calls for service with our 19 year old suspect and violence that he is inflicted against his own mother and father. So Joe, yeah, that's what,

as you explained, the kind of the past history, I thought it was fascinating here about how they put the robot first and then the SWAT team. Is that usually standard? How does that work? Well, now that we're seeing robots and those kind of, you know,

machines to be able to do things, they're trying to clear the house to see if there's any booby traps per se, right? So we've seen this happen before. So if you could send in the robot to try to see or determine if there are dangers for the incoming personnel, it's always a good move if you can do that first. I mean, they had no other indication that there was anybody else in that house. But they, you know, it's be 100% sure.

I'd rather see a robot go in there and get smashed and then having more law enforcement officers get injured. Hey there, everybody. Quick question for you. Life, it doesn't happen biweekly, right? So why should your payday? The money you earn can be in your hands today. with the sponsor of this video, Earning. So Earning is an app that gives you access to your pay as you work up to $100 per day

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like this and observing what they observed? Well, I'm not so familiar with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department, but I'm assuming that they will have some sort of intervention, so to speak, with a psychologist at the doctor's office or a hospital, or at least a follow-up. I mean, we do that here in New York City. Any officer that is involved, he or she and their partner will go speak to a psychologist. Generally, it's at the hospital when it happens, just to see if there's any, you know, recurring kind of issues that they're going to deal with. Now, here's something interesting, and we kind of touched upon it, is that this young man wasn't supposed to even have access to guns.

According to the sheriff, there was a risk protection order in place, and his guns were taken away. Let's listen. We need to find out what happened and how did this mentally ill subject have access to any type of firearms when we took his firearms. They're in our custody. How did he have access to any type of firearms to be able to inflict this type of violence here this evening? Yeah, the entire point of a risk protection order is to keep something like this from happening. And according to Sheriff Conister, that order had been in place since March.

So, Joe, how does something like this happen? Well, this is where the big investigation is going to come from, right? Was he able to go to a gun store and buy guns? Was he able to get him from somebody else? Or did the father bring him into the house? So this is where the investigation is going to lead. And I'll tell you something. I mean, there's no sense of having an order if you're not going to be able to figure out

who shouldn't have him in the first place. So this is going to take on a new part. of the investigation and we're going to have to wait and see what they determine now as i mentioned you have a whole family who's dead it's an absolutely tragic horrible event the flip side of it the only good thing to come out of it is that this deputy deputy mou he underwent surgery as i mentioned he is expected to make a full recovery and federal law enforcement they lined up apparently outside of the hospital to wish him well as he left the hospital on monday that kind of response where you see law enforcement at the side of law enforcement, Joe.

That's always great to see, right? Yes, I mean, it's, it is a brotherhood and a sisterhood. And they, you know, unless you've been part of it, you really don't understand that. But the issue that comes down to is that you try to back each other up whenever you can and try to give out that pat on the back when it's deserved it. Well, it's a horrible case. It was a horrible ending. But I am just thankful that the officers are safe and sound.

and, you know, Deputy Magooza expected to make a full recovery. But again, just a really sad case. But you kind of get an insight there about how they responded to what is a very chaotic and dangerous situation. Joe Jackalone, thank you so much for coming on. Tell everybody where they can find you again. They can find me on YouTube, true crime with the serge. Thanks a lot, Jesse, for having me on again. All right, everybody.

That's all we have for you right now here on this episode of Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.