“HE THREATENED ME SO I SHOT HIM”!!! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, POLICE SAY 43-YEAR-OLD FLETCHER MCCRAY WALKED DIRECTLY UP TO OFFICERS TO ADMIT HE COMMITTED A FATAL SHOOTING AT A TAMPA MOTEL, BUT INVESTIGATORS SAY SECURITY VIDEO CONTRADICTS HIS SELF-DEFENSE CLAIM BY SHOWING THE VICTIM WITH HIS HANDS RAISED IN THE AIR… LEAVING MCCRAY FACING SECOND-DEGREE MURDER CHARGES.
A deadly confrontation outside a Tampa motel ended with an unusual development for responding officers.
The man police would eventually charge allegedly walked directly up to them and stated he was responsible for the gunfire.
On Saturday, August 29, 2026, Tampa police responded to a reported disturbance in Seminole Heights.
The call took place just after 11 p.m. in the 7100 block of North Nebraska Avenue.
Officers had received reports of an ongoing fight involving several people at a motel.
When officers arrived, they discovered a man in his late 30s suffering from gunshot wounds.
The wounded man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities have not publicly released his identity.
Officers began securing the motel and starting their investigation into the fatal encounter.
As officers were still securing the scene, 43-year-old Fletcher McCray allegedly approached them.
Investigators say McCray told officers that he had shot the victim.
Detectives subsequently began reconstructing what allegedly happened prior to the shooting.
Police say the trouble actually began during an earlier fight at another location.
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Importantly, investigators said the man who was eventually shot was not involved in that original confrontation.
The group later traveled to the motel on North Nebraska Avenue.
Another altercation allegedly erupted once the group was at the motel.
McCray reportedly told detectives that he fired because the victim had threatened him.
His statement raised a potential claim that he acted in self-defense.
But investigators say surveillance footage from the motel tells a different story.
According to police, security video allegedly shows the victim with his hands raised in the air immediately before McCray fired.
Investigators said what they observed on the recording did not match McCray’s claim of self-defense.
And police noted the evidence did not support his account.
McCray was taken into custody by authorities.
He was arrested and booked into the Hillsborough County Jail early Sunday morning.
McCray is charged with second-degree murder with a firearm discharge.
He faces an additional charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The Tampa Police Department says the investigation remains active.
The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
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