By Matt Wiley
An arrest has been made, but the investigation continues into a bizarre home invasion inside the Promenade apartments in a Tampa Palms neighborhood early on July 22.
According to the Tampa Police Department (TPD), 29-year-old Kevin Ellison has been charged with multiple felonies, including several counts of kidnapping, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and robbery/ home invasion. Detectives say they do not believe that Ellison’s actions were random acts of violence.
The TPD incident report tells a terrifying tale of home invasion and intimidation. The report says that around 1:30 a.m., Ellison unlawfully entered a Promenade apartment, located on Compton Dr. in Tampa Palms Area 3 with a loaded, semi-automatic pistol and demanded money from the two victims in the apartment who were watching television. One victim was a female who lives at the residence and the second was an unnamed juvenile. He forced the victims at gunpoint into a bathroom while he searched the apartment for valuables.
During this time, the report says, a third victim (the tenant’s cousin) arrived at the apartment. Ellison grabbed him by the neck and forced him into the bathroom, as well. Once all three victims were in the bathroom, Ellison ordered the first victim out into the living room and demanded, at gunpoint, that she take off her clothes and tell him where all of the valuables were in the apartment.
The report says that Ellison led her back to the bathroom, forced the juvenile out of the tub and onto the toilet and ordered the first and third victims to fill the tub with water. Ellison plugged in a fan from another room and threatened to throw it into the tub with the victims, saying that there was a “contract out” on the first victim. He then demanded to know whom the victims knew that could bring $1,000 to the apartment. One victim suggested a family member in Riverview.
Ellison said he couldn’t wait that long, the report says. He shut the bathroom doors and left the apartment with more than $2,000 in stolen cash and electronics. TPD responded and, through interviews, the officers were able to identify Ellison. They ran surveillance on his home at 3304 E. Mohawk Dr. in East Tampa, where he was later arrested, despite denying that he was involved in the crime after being read his Miranda rights.
Ellison is currently being held without bail at the Hillsborough County jail on three counts of robbery/home invasion of more than $300, three counts of kidnapping and firearm possession, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of tampering with a witness and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Records show that Ellison had recently been released from state prison in June, a sentence healready has served for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He previously also served an 18-month prison sentence for cocaine possession, burglary and grand theft.
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