Pasco Deputies Tried To Change End of Air Force Veteran's Life

Do not blame police for trying to change the way an Air Force veteran's life ended. Blame all of us because they tried to taser him and they also used pepper spray.

Tampa Air Force veteran, 34, dies after rampage, struggle with Pasco deputies
Tampa Bay Times
Dan Sullivan, Times Staff Writer
Friday, December 30, 2016

A deputy sprayed Sellinger with pepper spray, but that also had no effect, officials said. As the struggle continued, a deputy used a Taser a second time, knocking Sellinger to the ground.

LAND O'LAKES — An Air Force veteran who had been reported missing from Tampa died Thursday after a rampage a day earlier in Pasco County, where authorities say he assaulted a 70-year-old motorcyclist before a violent struggle with sheriff's deputies.

John Sellinger, 34, endured pepper spray and shocks from a Taser as he fought with deputies. After he was detained, he went into "distress," according to Pasco County sheriff's officials. Despite lifesaving efforts, he later died at a local hospital.

His exact cause of death was not immediately clear. It capped a bizarre chain of events that began Wednesday, when authorities received reports of several hit-and-run accidents in Hillsborough County.

Sellinger's wife, Laura, had reported him missing that day. He lived in a Seminole Heights house recently donated to his wife by the Gramatica Family Foundation. Both Sellingers had served in the Air Force. An improvised explosive device had detonated near Laura Sellinger in Iraq in 2006, causing a severe brain injury.

Standing outside the home Friday night, Laura Sellinger declined to comment publicly. But on Thursday, she posted a message to the social networking website LinkedIn.

"My husband died today, I wish I could make that up," she wrote. "I wish I could sit here today and tell you a different story, a tale that ends in a happier ending but this one is tragic."
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