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Police Chase, Shoot Man After Holmes Beach Robbery

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Sarasota Herald Tribune staff report

Published: December 5, 2007

HOLMES BEACH - Authorities say they have captured a man who shot a woman in a robbery at a local business and then started a gunfight with police in neighborhoods around Gulf Drive on Anna Maria Island.

The man, who may have been shot by police, was taken into custody at 10:50 a.m. on a stretch of beach along the 300 block of Gulf Drive South, near a business called A Place in the Sun. He lay injured a few feet from the surf and was awaiting an ambulance about 10:55 a.m.

Parts of the beaches were evacuated during the chase and shootout. Police cars from various agency were combing the length of Anna Maria Island.

It began when a woman was shot in the stomach about 10 a.m. today in the robbery at a Holmes Beach business, and a police chase ensued in which the man shot at officers, according to police emergency communications.

The incident happened at Island Mail and More, 3230 East Bay Drive, according to the broadcasts. The woman was taken to a hospital by helicopter.

Bonnie Murray, a resident since 1972, was dropping off artwork at Dee's Boutique, not far from the shooting site, when she heard popping noises.

Murray said she also saw emergency vehicles and assumed the vehicles were there to attend to a heart attack victim and not a shooting.

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