High on methamphetamine and ranting about a non-existent burglar, a Conch Key man on Aug. 30 fired a handgun three times inside his home while his roommate was inside, according to Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies.
No one was injured, but that wasn’t for a lack of trying, deputies said. His roommate, a 27-year-old woman who had her infant son with her when the first gunshot went off, said she feared for her life.
Peter Anthony Capurro, 57, was taken to the county jail on Stock Island and charged with attempted murder, shooting into an occupied structure, and improper exhibition of a firearm.
Capurro’s final shot on Aug. 30 went through his bedroom door and nearly struck his roommate, deputies said.
On Sept. 5, Capurro remained locked up on a $285,000 bond with a Sept. 20 court date, according to MCSO online records.
The night before the shooting, Capurro had called the Sheriff’s Office to his home on West Conch Avenue. He claimed he saw two people hiding behind the shower curtain in his bathroom, “so he discharged a firearm towards the shower,” MCSO Detective Ty Torres wrote in the incident report.
Torres and deputies went to Capurro’s home but found no evidence a burglary had happened. But they noticed he was acting erratically and appeared to be high on narcotics.
By early the next morning, Capurro was still ranting about a burglar being in his home, reports said.
Capurro’s roommate told deputies Capurro had been on a meth bender.
She said they both started doing meth the night of Aug. 29 – before Capurro called the sheriff’s office claiming a burglary had happened.
The roommate said she stopped doing meth, but Capurro kept ingesting the highly addictive potent central nervous system stimulant known to send addicts into delusions and violent behavior.
Capurro “continued and exceeded a normal amount consumed by a common user,” and began hallucinating and acting erratically, Torres reported the woman said.
Capurro told his roommate there was a burglar in the home and summoned her to the living room. He fired the handgun at his bathroom door.
The roommate said she raced out of the home with her infant son to her parents’ home nearby.
She left the child at her parents’ house “and for some reason decided to return back to the residence where Capurro was,” according to the MCSO report. Capurro fired the gun again while she was in her bedroom.
She went to confront Capurro. While she was standing behind his bedroom door, he aimed and fired into the door.
After a brief standoff with deputies, Capurro walked out of the home without further incident and was first taken to Fishermen’s Community Hospital in Marathon. He was later taken to jail.
The Sheriff’s Office found several firearms in Capurro’s home, including a 12-gauge shotgun, a .357 revolver, a 9mm handgun, and three rifles. MCSO obtained a risk protection order Aug. 30 “in order to prevent the weapons from being in the possession of Capurro,” spokesman Adam Linhardt said.
