A preschool next door is evacuated after the New Port Richey man is shot at an apartment complex.
By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published October 28, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - A New Port Richey man was listed in critical condition Wednesday after being shot at an apartment complex near the Police Department.
Police said Mark Allen Kjaer, 41, of 4136 Northhampton Drive was shot in the upper torso while at 516 St. Michaels Way in St. Michaels Apartment complex on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Kjaer pulled into the Tarpon Springs Public Safety Building's parking lot in a green Chevrolet Venture van about 7:35 a.m. Wednesday and told fire rescue workers he had been shot. He was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg.
After the shooting, officers evacuated the Head Start preschool next door to the apartment complex for about 30 minutes as they established a perimeter around the apartments. Children and staff waited in the Public Safety Building while officers investigated.
Tarpon Springs Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jeff Young said officers found the handgun thought to be the weapon on the apartment complex grounds.
Officers were still questioning witnesses and possible suspects late Wednesday afternoon, he said, and no arrests had been made.
Late Friday night, a man and a woman were injured by gunfire about two blocks away at 605 North Ave.
Young said the two incidents do not appear to be related.
"We don't have anything to indicate that it's related to that," Young said. "We don't believe that it is."
