Video: Tampa Police Chief Says Two Officers Injured During 'Ambush'

Police officers in Tampa, Florida, were ambushed Saturday while responding to a call, according to Tampa Police Department (TPD) Chief Brian Dugan.

The chief said “officers were called to the intersection of 15th Street N and 26th Avenue E for a report of shots fired with a possible victim,” according to Fox 13.

When they arrived, hundreds of people had all four intersections blocked off and as they attempted to find a victim, the crowd became aggressive.

“There were hundreds of them. Hundreds,” Dugan recalled. “We ended up having to call every single police officer that was available that night to respond there, from New Tampa to South Tampa.”

Aerial video footage showed the crowd gathered around three police vehicles.

“Are there any other units over here? Any other units over here?” a person said over the radio as the crowd began moving away from the scene.

“We have rocks and bottles and glass bottles being thrown. Beware, use caution,” an officer advised.

Monday, Dugan said police who arrived at the scene were unable to locate a shooting victim, according to WFTS.

“It’s an ambush. I have no other way to describe it. When there are that many people out there and clearly no one had been shot. It was just a set up to get the cops there,” he explained.

However, the chief added 25-year-old suspect Aaron Lamar Brown was arrested for resisting with violence, failure to obey a lawful order, and violation of probation, WFLA reported.

At the scene, one officer was hit in the head and suffered a small laceration and swelling and a second officer was struck in the back of the head with a glass bottle.

Both were taken to Tampa General Hospital and treated for minor injuries.

Monday morning, another officer was hurt when he responded to a call about a theft at a 7-Eleven on Hillsborough Avenue, the chief said.

As the officer attempted to take the suspect into custody, the person resisted arrest, tried to grab the officer’s gun, and also struck him in the face several times.

The officer suffered multiple cuts and abrasions but was expected to recover.

“These are the type of things that our officers have been dealing with lately. Tensions are high out there in our neighborhoods. These are troubling times to say the least,” Dugan stated.

“The police, we always have everyone’s back. Nobody has ours right now and that is what I think is missing here,” he continued, adding that investigators were looking through dashcam video from Saturday and that arrests may be forthcoming.