Crime & Safety

Leg-Shackled Inmate Grabs At Gun, Thwarted By Bailiffs

Circuit court video shows an inmate's lunge toward a holstered handgun as Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies stop him in his tracks.

What was he thinking? Apparently a step removed from reality, a 24-year-old inmate in shackles, awaiting for his felony case to be heard in court, made an ill-conceived lunge toward a deputy's gun, only to be detained by the quick responses of two bailiffs, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

"Fortunately, no one was injured in this incident," said Larry McKinnon, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, in a report on the incident, said to have occurred July 30, shortly after 9 a.m.

That's when Robert Lewis Bridges, 24, an inmate at the Falkenburg Road Jail in Tampa, about 1 mile north of Brandon Boulevard (State Road 60), reportedly made his move in the courtroom of Circuit Court Judge Martha Cook, awaiting for his case on felony charges to be called.

"Bridges was secured with leg shackles as well as handcuffed in front with an
attached waist chain," McKinnon said. 

Master Sgt. Tracey Wallace, an 18-year veteran with the sheriff's office, and the two  deputies, on duty as bailiffs, "were in the courtroom in full uniform providing courtroom security when Robert Bridges lunged forward and with both
hands grabbed [Wallace's] holstered firearm," McKinnon said.

Wallace "immediately took defensive action and was able to prevent
Bridges from pulling her firearm from her holster," McKinnon added.

Bridges reportedly was restrained and removed from the courtroom and taken to a holding cell as charges were considered.

McKinnon said the following charges were subsequently lodged: battery on a law enforcement officer and depriving an officer of means of protection. According to Hillsborough County Jail records, his charges include third-degree grand theft, burglary of an occupied dwelling and obstructing or opposing an officer without violence, all with the date of Feb. 11, 2013.


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