TAMPA - When FHP trooper Brandon McElderry saw a red 1992 two-door Chevrolet with an expired temporary tag on Interstate 275, he signaled the driver to pull over.
On most days, that kind of traffic stop is finished within minutes. No one gets hurt.
On Wednesday, officials say, it ended with McElderry lying in a central Tampa residential street - his upper right thigh bleeding from a .40-caliber gunshot wound, his eyes burning from pepper spray, a bite mark on his cheek.
"He had blood coming out of his ears, his nose," said 27-year-old Joseph Feliciano, who lives on the Southeast Seminole Heights street where McElderry was shot. "He was in total pain and agony."
Authorities say Darian Maurice Wright - a sex offender with a history of violence against law enforcement officers - shot McElderry with the trooper's department-issued Beretta.
The shooting was the climax to a "knock-down, drag-out" fight that began when McElderry pulled Wright over and Wright resisted, Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said.
"Witnesses described this as hand-to-hand fighting in the street," Durkin said.
Within minutes of the shooting, Wright, 28, of Tampa, was in custody. McElderry, 30, of Riverview, was taken to Tampa General Hospital. He was in fair condition, with his wife at his side.
The scene of the shooting remained chaotic into early Wednesday afternoon. News helicopters flew overhead as dozens of law enforcement officers from the Florida Highway Patrol, Tampa police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement gathered information and witness accounts.
Elected officials including Tampa City Council member Rose Ferlita and State Attorney Mark Ober showed up.
Residents and other curious people stood around for more than two hours, trading whatever details they knew and trying to sort fact from rumor.
At one point right after the shooting, word was that McElderry was dead.
That was not so, said FHP spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins.
"He sprays the suspect with pepper spray, the spray blows back in his face, he keeps fighting. He gets shot, he keeps fighting," Coggins said.
"Trooper McElderry never gave up."
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McElderry, a two-year veteran of the FHP, was patroling I-275 near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard shortly after 10 a.m. when he saw Wright in the Chevrolet, police said.
Coggins said McElderry was in a Mercury Marauder, an unmarked patrol car with tinted windows that is used to target aggressive drivers. Wright got off I-275 at MLK and pulled over up the road, at N 10th Street.
The FDLE is investigating how the confrontation began, but authorities say Wright began fighting McElderry at N 10th Street and then ran into Southeast Seminole Heights.
McElderry pursued Wright and caught up with him at E North Bay Street and N 9th Street, Durkin said. There, Wright continued to fight McElderry as the trooper tried to take him into custody.
Wright, who sometimes goes by the alias "Fat Cat," stands 6 feet and weighs 250 pounds, according to jail records.
"Trooper McElderry is tall and in good shape," Coggins said. "But the other guy is much larger. It was a struggle."
McElderry sprayed pepper spray at Wright, but wind blew the stinging substance back into McElderry's face. He was taking his .40-caliber Beretta from his holster when Wright grabbed it, Coggins said.
Witnesses saw Wright stand over McElderry and shoot him, Durkin said. His thigh bleeding, McElderry radioed for help. He also gave FHP troopers and Tampa police a description of Wright.
Meanwhile, witnesses throughout the neighborhood started calling 911, Tampa police Maj. George McNamara said.
Tampa officers found Wright in the 900 block of E Chelsea Street, where he ran after trying to steal a truck from two landscapers on E Genesee Street, Durkin said. They also recovered the Beretta. Officers arrested Wright, who is expected to face several charges, including attempted carjacking, Durkin said.
Wright initially gave his name as Tony Livingston. police say.
As of Wednesday evening, Wright hadn't been booked into the county jail. FDLE spokesman Rick Morera said investigators were interviewing him.
"We've got a ways to go and a lot of work to do," Morera said.
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Authorities have not said why the traffic stop escalated into violence. However, Wright's criminal history includes several instances of violence.
Wright was to appear in court last month following an October arrest on two felony charges of failing to register as a sex offender, court records show. When Wright didn't show Dec. 15, Judge Ronald Ficarotta issued a warrant for his arrest, according to the county clerk's office.
State prison records show Wright was convicted in 1996 of two cases of violence against law enforcement officers in Hillsborough County - in March 1995 and in March 1996. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
The sentence came five months after Wright was ordered to serve almost four years in prison for committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 16, prison records show.
In June 2003, Wright was released from the Lake Correctional Institution.
Fifteen months later, jail records show, Tampa police officers arrested him on a domestic battery charge.
James Lawson, 29, saw police walking Wright out of an alley into a patrol car.
"He looked tired," Lawson said. "Like he had just given up."
Researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at svansickler@sptimes.com or 813 226-3373.
