Camper In Tow Shot At Boaters, Deputies SayBy YVETTE C. HAMMETT
yhammett@tampatrib.com Published: Aug 26, 2003
APOLLO BEACH - A leisurely weekend camping excursion to Beer Can Island left some good Samaritans a bit shaken Saturday after
a man in the a boat they were towing shot at them, according to the sheriff's office and a witness.
``We could see the bullets hitting the water,'' said Randy Juettner, 28, of Seffner. ``
He fired six shots at us, then dropped the clip, put in another one and fired a couple more. It's nothing I ever want to experience again.''
Juettner said he and his friends cut the tow rope, ducked and headed for the boat ramp at Bullfrog Creek.
Juettner was with friends Jeffrey Morris, 36, of Brandon and Christopher Adkins, 27, of Gibsonton, on Hillsborough Bay towing two disabled johnboats into the creek, Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.
The man in the second boat apparently got upset with his rescuers for going too fast, Carter said. Yeah, shooting at them will teach them to go slower. Anthony Bruce Sanders, 29, of Leesburg pulled out a 9 mm handgun and fired six shots toward them, according to a sheriff's report. The bullets flew past the other boat in tow, which had two people on board.
No one was hurt.
``I guess he just freaked out,'' Juettner said.
He said he met Sanders and his two friends Friday when they were camping on Beer Can Island off Apollo Beach.
``I know
his camping gear had all floated away during the night, so he was probably already mad about that. They left it too close to the water, and the tide came in and took it,'' Juettner said. Ok, can you say Darwin Award candidate?Juettner said Sanders and his two friends approached him and Morris Friday night, saying Sanders' boat was disabled and needed a tow. Sanders and his companions had towed a small johnboat out with them, and it didn't have a working motor. Morris agreed to tow both with his 18-foot Sea Ray.
``He didn't have any firewood or anything, so we told him he could stay by our fire,'' Juettner said. ``I know he was drinking all night, because he drank most of my beer.'' Well that's just downright unneighbourly!In the morning, when he, Morris and Adkins began pulling the two boats toward Bullfrog Creek, Sanders pulled out the gun and started shooting, the sheriff's report said.
They cut the rope and let Sanders and the other two drift, then headed into the Bullfrog Creek boat ramp, Juettner said.
A 911 call summoned deputies, who arrested Sanders
after someone else towed him to the boat ramp I can only imagine the conversation out on the water when the second Good Samaritan found the two boats adrift , Carter said. He remained in the Orient Road Jail Monday charged with one count each of aggravated assault and battery.
Sanders also is being held with no bail set on a fugitive warrant out of Ohio for allegedly failing to pay child support.