LEALMAN, Fla. (AP) — An ex-Tampa Bay area middle school principal who lost his job over a drug arrest five years ago stabbed several people Friday, killing at least two, and then drove his car into a porch full of people several miles away, authorities said.
Anthony Giancola, 45, was in custody, but the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately report what charges he was facing.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Giancola told his mother in the morning that he was “going to kill all the drug dealers.”
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Giancola then went to a halfway house for the hearing impaired in Lealman, where officials said he stabbed four people, killing a man and a woman. Of the two wounded, one person was reported to be in serious condition.
About an hour after the stabbing, Giancola pulled up in front of a house and asked residents where he could find women, officials said. The residents told him to go away, and Giancola drove away angry. He soon returned and crashed his car into their porch, injuring three women and one man, police said. Giancola also hit a 13-year-old boy on a bike as he was fleeing, officials said.
At some point, Giancola also broke into a Pinellas Park motel, where he beat two people with a microwave, authorities said.
Giancola was first arrested in 2007. Authorities said he bought $20 of crack cocaine from an undercover police officer during the school day in his office at Van Buren Middle School in Tampa.
A message left at a telephone listing for Giancola seeking comment from his family wasn’t immediately returned. It wasn’t clear if he had an attorney.
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Associated Press writer David Fischer in Miami contributed to this report.
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