For Leanne Selman, November 4 began like any other workday.
The 41-year-old had been part of the Citibank team for nine years, working in the company’s human resources department.
She had gone to work that morning with no reason to believe anything was out of the ordinary.
But thousands of miles from the kind of tragedy anyone expects to face at work, a man was preparing to carry out a terrifying attack.
By lunchtime on Wednesday, the Citibank campus near Tampa, Florida, had become the scene of a deadly shooting.
Leanne was killed, and several other employees were injured as terrified coworkers desperately searched for somewhere to hide.
As more details emerge about what happened that Wednesday, the circumstances surrounding Leanne’s final hours are particularly heartbreaking.
An ordinary day turned into a nightmare
The shooting unfolded shortly after noon on November 4, at Citibank’s Sabal Center campus in the Tampa area.
The large complex consists of several office buildings and is home to thousands of the banking company’s employees. On the day of the attack, more than 3,200 people were reportedly on the campus.
According to Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, the gunman was 35-year-old Jacob Pearson, who had allegedly become increasingly angry over a legal dispute involving a debt he owed the company.
Earlier that morning, around 9 a.m., Pearson had contacted an attorney’s office that handled legal matters for Citibank.
He had received a summons to appear in court over an unpaid balance of approximately $2,500 connected to a purchase made with his My Best Buy Visa Platinum card. According to a complaint reviewed by the Daily Mail, the precise amount was $2,556.80.
What followed was a series of increasingly alarming threats.
Pearson allegedly sent a letter to the company demanding that the court case be canceled. His words were deeply disturbing.
”Unless you want me to go over there with my AR-15, my bulletproof vest, and my insanity, you motherf***ing cancel this court case. Do you understand me?”
He reportedly continued by warning that the company was only an hour and three minutes away, adding:
”They are only an hour and three minutes away, so the last thing you want to do is f with me.”
The attorney’s office immediately took the threat seriously and notified a Citibank security supervisor, who was a retired Secret Service agent.
The supervisor then contacted the Orlando Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Police in Orlando were sent to Pearson’s home to conduct a welfare check. However, he was nowhere to be found.
His wife reportedly told officers that her husband was angry, had gotten into his car and driven away.
By then, Pearson was already on his way to Tampa.
Leanne was the first person he saw
Shortly after noon, Pearson arrived at the Citibank campus in a gray sedan.
He crashed through an outer gate and entered the courtyard carrying a rifle. Employees who were nearby suddenly found themselves in the middle of a terrifying attack.
And Leanne was directly in his path.
According to Sheriff Chronister, she was simply ”the first person he saw.”
The 35-year-old allegedly opened fire on the 41-year-old employee, shooting her several times with his rifle.
When the weapon malfunctioned, he reportedly returned to his car to retrieve a handgun. He then shot Leanne again as she crawled on the ground.
She had no known connection to Pearson, and authorities said the two had never met. In fact, the sheriff described her presence as nothing more than “a circumstance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
For Leanne’s colleagues, the realization that someone they had worked alongside for years had been killed in such a senseless attack was devastating.
She had spent nine years working for Citibank, serving in the human resources department. She was remembered by company leadership as a valued and beloved member of the team.
Ed Skyler, Citigroup’s head of Enterprise Services and Public Affairs, spoke about the loss in a statement.
”Our hearts are heavy, but they are also full of gratitude. We are grateful for the actions of our security team, heroic actions, that prevented this tragedy from becoming even worse,” he said.
He also remembered Leanne as a ”bright light.”
Her death left a company community grieving while employees were still trying to process the terrifying events they had witnessed.
Terrified employees hid as gunman entered building
After shooting Leanne, Pearson continued toward the office building and eventually entered the cafeteria.
Inside, employees were desperately trying to get away from the gunman.
Some ran toward the exits, while others sought shelter in locked rooms, offices and closets. As the attack unfolded, emergency responders began a floor-by-floor search of the large complex.
Police radio traffic later captured the scale of the operation, with officers carefully searching buildings and parking garages before escorting employees to safety.
The aftermath offered a heartbreaking glimpse of just how suddenly an ordinary workday had been shattered.
Among the belongings left behind were women’s shoes, lunch containers, water bottles and other everyday items abandoned as people ran for their lives.
For many employees, the priority had been getting out safely. Others had been left hiding and waiting, unsure whether the gunman was still nearby.
And as Pearson moved through the complex, one person would soon make a decision that officials say prevented an even greater tragedy.
Marine veteran confronted the gunman
Inside the building, Pearson encountered John Fraley, a 38-year-old Marine Corps veteran who worked as a vice president of operations at Citibank and was also part of the company’s armed security team.
According to Sheriff Chronister, Fraley took cover in a men’s restroom as the situation unfolded.
He then confronted Pearson, exchanging gunfire with the attacker and striking him five times.
Pearson was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where he later died.
The sheriff was quick to praise Fraley, describing his actions as heroic and emphasizing how many people were potentially in danger.
”John Fraley confronted this suspect and is a hero, plain and simple,” Chronister said.
”In a moment when most people would run away from danger, this guard ran toward it and stopped the threat within minutes of the first shots being fired.”
The sheriff also pointed out that Fraley could have chosen to protect himself and escape.
”He didn’t have to stop,” Chronister added. ”He could have run and protected his own life, too.”
Instead, his intervention brought the gunman’s rampage to an end before more employees could be killed.
According to officials, Pearson had arrived with two firearms and approximately 90 rounds of ammunition. Fifteen rounds were fired during the attack.
Chronister later said the security officer’s actions had prevented what could have been an even more devastating loss of life.
Citibank remembers a beloved colleague
In the hours after the shooting, more than 300 law enforcement officers responded to the scene as the campus was evacuated and searched.
Four other people were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. All have since been released.
The company also announced that counseling resources would be made available to employees and that staff would not be required to return to the office immediately.
For Citi CEO Jane Fraser, the attack was a devastating loss for the entire company.
In a message to employees, she described the shooting as a ”terrible tragedy for our Citi family.”
“My heart goes out to our colleague’s loved ones, all our colleagues in Tampa and everyone affected by this horrific act of violence,” she wrote.
But while the actions of the security team have been widely praised, the tragedy began with the loss of one woman who had simply gone to work.
Leanne Selman was 41 years old. She had spent nine years working for Citibank, and on November 4, she never got the chance to finish an ordinary day at the office.
Instead, her colleagues were left mourning a woman whose life was taken in an attack that authorities say could have claimed many more.
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