Story Archive

Somewhere South of Sandy Hook

Pasco County, Fla., Sheriff’s deputies responded to a shooting: David Armstrong, 56, was murdered at the Desario home in Port Richey. The gunman then walked to the street and threatened a nearby elementary school, just a few minutes before dismissal — parents were arriving to pick their kids up. When deputies arrived, the gunman engaged them in a shootout. “Let me make that clear,” said Sheriff Chris Nocco. “It is an absolute gun battle in the middle of the street within a block and a half of the school.” The principal instituted a lockdown and sixty deputies surrounded the school to ensure the gunman couldn’t get inside. The shooter, Brian Desario, 30, retreated into his mother’s home near the school — where he had an “arsenal” of guns and ammo — and was eventually killed in the 10-minute gunfight. The murder victim was a friend of Desario’s mother; she witnessed the killing, and her son has a history of mental illness. Nocco says Desario “believed that [Armstrong] was trying to pick up Brian’s girlfriend and hit on Brian’s girlfriend.” The problem? “Brian does not have a girlfriend. In his mind he did. But, in reality he didn’t.” (RC/WFTS Tampa, WFLA Tampa) ...A mentally ill man with arsenal of weapons living near a school: who knew that could ever be an issue?