A suspect who fatally shot a 47-year-old St. Petersburg sanitation worker as she sat in the cab of a front-end loader in Childs Park has barricaded himself inside a vehicle in Lee County, police said.<\/p>\n
The shooting happened about 12:35 p.m. on 12th Avenue South near 41st Street, said Yolanda Fernandez, a spokesperson for the St. Petersburg Police Department. The woman, a sanitation technician, was in the cab of the front-end loader when a man shot her at close range and then fled, Fernandez said.<\/p>\n
Fernandez said detectives believe the suspect and the woman know each other and that the shooting is domestic in nature.<\/p>\n
“This was very targeted, it was not random,” Fernandez said.<\/p>\n
Fernandez said police were not yet ready to release the suspect’s name and that investigators don’t believe anyone else is in danger.<\/p>\n
“We feel confident that we will be able to bring this to a close,” she said.<\/p>\n
In an update shortly after 4 p.m., police said Florida Highway Patrol troopers found the suspect heading south on Interstate 75 in Lee County. He stopped and barricaded himself inside of his vehicle.<\/p>\n
The woman worked for the city for 12 years and was a mother of four, Fernandez said. Police are not going to release her name because of Marsy’s Law.<\/p>\n
Fernandez said the city is providing access to grief counselors for the woman’s co-workers in the sanitation department.<\/p>\n