Business Owner Grateful For Surviving Ybor Holdup Ordeal

Published: May 15, 2007

TAMPA - Hours before he planned to sing in church at a Mother's Day celebration, Michael Dunn lay face-down in an Ybor City parking lot, praying for his life.

It was about 12:45 a.m. Sunday, near North 17{+t}{+h} Street and East 12{+t}{+h} Avenue. A teenager covering his face pointed a gun at Dunn, co-owner of Stogie Castillo's Cigar Lounge & Factory in Centro Ybor.

Dunn had tossed out his wallet, but the teenager ignored it. "I knew he was going to shoot me," said Dunn, 39, a father of four children.

Suddenly, the doors of a nearby minivan flew open. Two Tampa police officers, Robert Partner and Gary Saunders, jumped out, yelling, "Police! Get on the ground!"

Bullets began flying.

"Pop, pop, pop. It happened that fast," Dunn said Monday between waiting on customers. "I found out how fast I could walk on my elbows. I crawled around to the back of that van and ducked behind the tire."

When the shooting stopped, 16-year-old Ahmad Black of Apollo Beach, identified by police as the gunman, was wounded in the elbow, ankle and buttocks. Monday, he was in Tampa General Hospital, where his condition was unavailable.

Police charged Black with armed robbery and aggravated assault. They also charged a teen with him - Christopher A. Haugabrook, 16, of Tampa - with armed robbery. Additional charges might result from further investigation, police Maj. George McNamara said.

Monday, Dunn said the experience hasn't soured him on Ybor City, which he says "has been good to us" during two years in business. He was scraped on his elbows but otherwise unhurt.

"These guys saved my life," he said of the officers. "I'm just amazed. I feel blessed by God just to be here."

Partner and Saunders were on administrative leave with pay Monday pending a standard review of the shooting, McNamara said.

The officers were watching the area because of several car thefts and auto burglaries reported there. They received a report of "suspicious kids on bicycles" shortly before the shooting, McNamara said.

The robbery occurred about 10 feet from the officers. "They were shocked at the brazenness of it," McNamara said. "He could've taken the wallet and ridden off into the night."

Dunn, of Brandon, said he went to Ybor City to help his business partner close for the evening. He was walking through the parking lot when the teenagers approached.

One wore a jacket draped around his shoulders, Dunn said. "He threw the sleeve over his face so that all I could see was his eyes," he said. "I got this sinking feeling like, 'Here we go.'"

The teen ordered, "Get on the ground," which Dunn ignored. Then the teen pulled a gun from his front pocket. "Get on the ground," he said again, according to Dunn.

Dunn complied, throwing them his wallet. To his surprise, "he pointed the gun and started walking toward me," Dunn said. He thought about his children, his granddaughter, his wife. "Then I was thinking, is it going to hurt? Would I feel it?"

The officers' arrival felt like something out of a movie, Dunn said. Afterward, he phoned his wife to tell her he was OK. He spoke to investigators until about 4 a.m., leaving him enough time to sing at two services at Horizon Christian Church in Valrico.

Now he's glad to sing the officers' praises. "They were a gift from God," he said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.