Police: Former Tampa principal goes on killing spree

Tampa - A former school principal from Martin Van Buren Middle School in Tampa allegedly stabbed two people to death before he drove his car into a group of people in front of a home in Lealman, near Pinellas Park.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office reports that former middle-school principal Anthony Giancola was in custody Friday afternoon, but it wasn't immediately clear what or how many charges he was facing. Police say Giancola, who was jailed in 2007 for buying crack cocaine in his office at school, stabbed two people to death Friday before injuring five others in two separate hit-and-run accidents. According to the Sheriff’s Office, Giancola fatally stabbed a man and woman and injured two others at a group home for the hearing impaired. Later, Giancola rammed four people standing outside a duplex, according to a Tampa Tribune report. Giancola is alleged to have killed the man and woman Friday morning and injured two others at 5100 35th Way N. Then, a little before noon, Giancola parked his 2005 Ford Five Hundred Limited at HCF Foods Discount Store, 5705-B 58th Ave. N. Then he reversed abruptly and collided with a four-feet-tall wooden pole in the parking lot before driving across the street to 2825 Apt. A, 58th Ave. N. Police say Giancola spoke briefly with some witnesses standing outside a duplex. "We don't know him," a witness said. "He just came up looking for some girls to party with I guess and didn't have a happy day when we told him to go down the road." Giancola reportedly drove around the block before returning to the duplex where he struck three adult females and one adult male standing near the front porch of the duplex. Giancola backed the car from the scene and drove west on 58th Avenue North before striking another victim, a 13-year-old child walking just east of U.S. Highway 19. Next he drove to the Egg Platter Restaurant at 6767 U.S. Highway 19 where he abandoned his vehicle. Giancola managed to get behind the wheel of an older pick up and was apprehended by police along U.S. Highway 19. The women he struck at the duplex are being treated at Bayfront Medical Center. The male, and 13-year-old boy, were treated and released at the scenes. In the stabbing, a man was pronounced dead at the scene and a woman expired at the hospital. Two others remain hospitalized. In 2007, Principal Giancola was arrested in his office at Van Buren Middle School minutes after he bought a $20 crack rock from an undercover Tampa police officer, authorities said. Giancola, pleaded guilty to purchasing and possessing crack cocaine and possessing marijuana. He was sentenced to 364 days in the county jail and three years of probation.