Security guard shot twice in Florida

Police have started an investigation after a security guard was shot outside an apartment complex near Tampa, a city in the US state of Florida.

The shooting happened late Sunday night as the guard was making his rounds at the Royal Oaks Apartments. The guard was taken to the hospital, where Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies were able to interview him, the Associated Press reported.

The guard saw two suspicious men and told them they were trespassing, the deputies said. One of the suspects fired a gun at the guard, striking him twice.

The suspects left the scene and police are searching for them. They are described as a black male and Hispanic male, Fox 13 reported. Deputies said the Hispanic man is about 5-foot-7 and was wearing a hoodie at the time of the incident.

Since the deadly shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14 which left 20 first-grade school children and six staff members dead, nearly 31,000 people have been killed in gun violence across the US, according to slate.com.

A scientific study published by the American Journal of Medicine in September found that the rate of gun violence is positively correlated with gun ownership rates, supporting arguments put forth by many critics who blame the notoriously liberal gun control laws in the US for the high rate of gun violence in the country.

According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, an average of 32 Americans is murdered with guns every day and 140 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room.

ARA/ARA