‘So I have to stay in custody?’: Judge denies bond to man accused of shooting wife, chasing down ambulance in St. Petersburg
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Devin Hansen, 28, who shot his wife and then chased down an ambulance, was denied bond Thursday afternoon, as he faces several charges including murder in the first degree.
This decision comes after a bizarre chain of events unfolded Wednesday night in St. Petersburg and neighbors waking up Thursday morning to the news of a woman murdered.
“I’m shocked honestly,” said Juan Escalante. “I came over here and saw all of the tape and I said well crime scene, I guess it is true.”
St. Petersburg police say it all started with an argument between Hansen and his wife, Yasmin Grijalva.
That altercation took a violent turn that led to an alarming 911 call.
“We had a call about 10:30 of the woman who has been shot,” Yolanda Fernandez with the St. Petersburg Police Department said. “When we got there, the suspect and her husband had fled.”
Police said Hansen shot his wife.
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In an effort to save her life, officers loaded her in an ambulance to take Grijalva to the hospital. That’s when an officer looked out the back window to see the accused shooter chasing down the ambulance.
“We knew he was armed,” Fernandez explained. “He was dangerous. He was violent, and he was following very closely. That was considered a threat, an issue.”
“That’s when our officers tried to pull him over and he took off,” Fernandez added.
Then the pursuit began at 10:56 p.m. according to St. Petersburg police.
Police said within five minutes, Hansen crashed into landscaping rocks on 54th Avenue South where he was then taken into custody.
Grijalva was pronounced dead at Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital.
It’s something that came as a shock to Jacob Newland, who says he’s known Hansen since they were kids.
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Newland described Hansen as a good guy at heart but said he stopped being friends with him a few years back because of the way he struggled with his temper.
“He was a nice guy, nice in his soul, but just couldn’t stay away from his anger,” Newland described. “I haven’t seen him in seven or eight years.”
“I was hoping he kind of outgrew that behavior, and I guess he didn’t,” he concluded.
Hansen appeared virtually in court Thursday for his first appearance.
A judge set Hansen’s bond at $25,000 for domestic battery but denied his bond for the first-degree murder charge.
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“Right now you have zero bond,” the judge told Hansen. “You will go in front of the judge who is set to handle this particular case.”
Hansen responded, “So I have to stay in custody?”
“Yes, sir,” the judge replied.
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