Ex-firefighter accused of firing at truck

A recently retired city fire district chief is arrested; two women say he shot at, but did not hit, the pickup they were in.

By KATHERINE GAZELLA

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2001

TARPON SPRINGS -- A former Clearwater fire district chief fired a handgun at a truck occupied by two women early Saturday morning, police said.

Wayne Randolph Tiggett, 49, shot at a pickup truck about 2 a.m. Saturday but did not hit the truck or injure the women inside, Tarpon Springs police Sgt. Tom Hill said. Police pulled him over shortly afterward, and Tiggett threw the handgun out the window of his car, Hill said.

Tiggett, a 26-year veteran of the Clearwater Fire Department, retired last month. At the time, he was a district chief -- a mid-level manager within the department -- making about $53,000 a year.

"Wayne gave 26 years of service to us," said Rowland Herald, the Clearwater fire chief. "This turn of events is pretty surprising to us."

Tiggett left the department on good terms, Herald said. Employees who work in hazardous duty jobs are allowed to retire after 20 years of service, he said.

Tiggett did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.

Hill said there is no apparent motive for the shooting.

"It's absolutely random," he said. "It was very strange."

Before the shooting, several people contacted the Police Department to tell officers a man fitting Tiggett's description and driving a white car was waving a gun at people around town, Hill said.

The woman who was driving the truck said she was shocked when Tiggett's car pulled up next to her as she drove east on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Erin Rogan, 22, said Tiggett told her to pull her truck to the side of the road. At first, she thought he was pointing out a problem with her car, but she quickly realized he wasn't trying to be helpful.

"He tried to run us off the road," she said.

Rogan's passenger, Melissa Lynn Tipton, 19, noticed that Tiggett had a gun and she ducked down in her seat, Rogan said. Tiggett fired a shot, but it did not hit Rogan's truck.

"I was flipping out," Rogan said. "It was the worst experience of my life."

Rogan pulled up to the stop light at U.S. 19 and honked her horn when she saw a police car. The officer had heard the earlier accounts of someone in a white car waving a gun, and he pulled over Tiggett's white Chrysler Concorde, Hill said.

Tiggett threw the gun out his car window in the parking lot at Chili's restaurant, and officers said it smelled as if it had been fired recently, police said.

Tiggett faces charges on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm from a vehicle and shooting into an occupied vehicle. He was released Sunday from the Pinellas County Jail on $40,000 bail.

- Times staff writer Chris Tisch and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Staff writer Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or gazella@sptimes.com.

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