Crime & Safety

Regency Square Homicide Investigation Uncovers Person of Interest

The death of Sean Michael Buchanan leads to a plea from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to help identify a person of interest captured on video at AMC The Regency 20 at Brandon's Regency Square shopping center the night of May 30.

Detectives seek the public’s help in identifying a person of interest identified in the homicide investigation stemming from the Memorial Day weekend death of Sean Michael Buchanan, who was found critically injured in his car in an embankment behind the Regency Square shopping center in Brandon.

Meanwhile, community members continue to mourn the young father whose  in performances throughout town, including the Brandon Elks Lodge, Kings Avenue Baptist Church and the Riverview High School theater stage.

“He was paying child support, he had no criminal history that we were aware of and he had multiple jobs,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry McKinnon.” It’s kind of difficult to back-track on what his activity was other than he lived an honest, good and clean life. It’s very important that we get some ideas of what’s going on.”

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Toward that end, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office on the evening of June 2 began to distribute and post throughout town flyers concerning details of the crime and of a man captured in a surveillance video at AMC The Regency 20 on May 30.

"This individual we're hoping might know something about what took place," McKinnon said. "He might be totally unaware of anything that occurred that night or he could have seen something that might just get us to the next level of the investigation."

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Identified as a person of interest is a man described as white or Hispanic, age 18-35, with a thin build, weighing 140-170 pounds and standing between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-11. He was seen wearing a dark baseball cap with a flat bill, gray T-shirt with a logo on the front and pants described as blue jeans.

According to the flyer:

  • Deputies on May 30, at around 10:39 p.m., responded to a traffic crash at the Regency Square shopping center after a passerby reported seeing a car “down the embankment in a wooded area” at 2496 Brandon Blvd.
  • Buchanan was found in the car, which has been identified as his Toyota Corolla, with “trauma to the upper body which is not consistent with being caused by a traffic crash.” McKinnon said in an interview that Buchanan was found "conscious, but incoherent and confused" and unable to give any information about what had happened to him. He was transported to Tampa General Hospital, where he died in surgery, McKinnon said.
  • Wanted is anyone in the area, between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. on May 30, who “might have seen the victim, the victim’s vehicle or the unidentified person of interest” pictured on the flyer (and attached to this report).

 Anyone with information is asked to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office at 813-247-8200.

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