morning everybody so we're here the this morning to announce the arrest of Christopher keys as I run through this this is a very very tragic case of domestic violence in long-term domestic violence and the cycle of what happens when people can't find their way out of that cycle and I guess the long-standing phenomenon that's knowing when women are abused or in some cases men but they keep coming back and they can't find their way out of that and unfortunately sadly in this case the victim as I run through this you'll see the victim because of this ongoing domestic violence was shot by keys on Monday and is blind and probably won't see again there's a result of it so let me run through it and I'll take any questions you have the victim who are not going to identify because she is alive thankfully and as a victim of domestic violence is a 24 year old female who lived in the area of 31st street and 60th avenue north in wellman which is unincorporated st. Petersburg I'm not going to give you the specific address because she hasn't victim of domestic violence and that's where she lives so that address is not a specific address that we're going to release she also with keys has an 11 month old daughter keys and the victim began dating in 2013 between november 2013 in june of 2015 tease and the victim lived together on and off at an address in Kenneth's city while they were living together keys and the victim fought often and there was ongoing domestic violence between them during that too your period in March of 2014 the kind of city police department was called in the victim the victim was arrested for domestic battery on keys in May of 2014 police were again called and this time keys was arrested for aggravated domestic battery under victim while she was pregnant with their now 11 month old daughter both cases in the kenneth city arrests were dropped by the state attorney's office because keys and the victim were not cooperative with prosecution unfortunately domestic violence continued in the relationship and in june of 2015 the victim obtained a temporary domestic violence injunction against keys the victim at that point moved from where she was living in Kenneth City to the place where she's now residing in the area of 31st street and 60th avenue north on august first of 2015 a neighbor of the victims saw keys in the middle of the night under her car while it was parked in the driveway of her home keys was confronted by the neighbor when he was confronted he ran and Pinellas County Sheriff's Office was called and we responded deputies located keys he was in the vehicle and he was leaving the area deputies found that he had a pair of pliers with him with brake fluid on them as well as gloves and he had brake fluid all over his person at that time keys denied to the deputies that he was trying to cut the victims brake lines so he was charged with burglary to her vehicle which is a charge that fit under those circumstances at that point the domestic violence injunction that had been issued in June so this is now August first the domestic violence injunction had not been served on keys because we couldn't find him because he was moving from place to place he was transient he was moving around so upon his arrest is that he was served at the jail with that domestic violence injunction that issued in June it was a temporary injunction so as is unfortunately the situation in many domestic violence cases even after he was arrested under her car pliers white brake fluid even after the domestic violence injunction was served is is that she engaged in communication with him which is in violation of the domestic violence injunction as keys was continually texting the victim and communicating with her back and forth the victim was also again uncooperative in the prosecution of keys on the burglary charge so that case was dismissed by the State Attorney's Office in November 2015 because of her lack of cooperation this goes back to that cycle of violence and the everything that happens in domestic violence cases is that there is even some delay involving the domestic violence injunction process because she was reluctant she want to be the injunction but she was reluctant to participate fully in that process so while the domestic violence was occurring and while the case was still pending from the August burglary in the State Attorney's Office didn't dismiss that until November but on October fourth so yet the under the car with the pliers brake line etc on in August cases pending doesn't get dismissed till November but on August fourth keys again tried to cut the victims brake lines and this time the victim looked out the window of a residence and actually saw him under the car and took a photograph of him as he's under her car trying to cut her brake lines and we have that photograph she took a photograph with her cell phone and when she took the photograph she yelled out the window to him and confronted him and as she confronted him and told him to quote knock it off or he was not going to be able to see his child again because he was putting that in jeopardy by this continual conduct and and trying to hurt them and trying to do harm to them and that when she said to him that you won't see your daughter again if you keep doing this he responded doesn't matter you'll be dead within a year [ __ ] quote unquote he then fled the area so unfortunately at that point on October fourth is the victim did not call law enforcement did not call the pinellas county sheriff's officer reported she called keys the defendant in this case called his father and reported it to the father the father pleaded with her not to call the police again and she didn't and so this was never reported to us until this week till a couple days ago on November second keys was served with the final in permanent domestic violence injunction nevertheless I November 24th he's sent the victim a text message in that text message again in violation of the injunction for no contact said that the only reason she's receiving his text messages because he bought a gun and tried to kill himself but the gun misfired the victim ascii is more about the gun and he was evasive and stated that nobody will find the gun and that he will get rid of it according to the victim the text messages and the communication with he stopped around November 27th and she didn't have any contact with him between approximately November 27th and this past Monday morning December first 2015 so this past Monday morning as she usually does the victim woke up around six thirty in the morning to get herself and her daughter ready she goes to work and she drops to the daughter off a daycare center in her neighborhood up until a few days ago and things happen for strange reasons in this case thankfully up until a few days ago the victim when she put the baby in the car was put in the baby in a car seat and the car seat was behind the driver's seat in the vehicle so for whatever reason recently she switched from putting the baby in the car seat behind the driver's seat to in the backseat but behind the past see so after she got the baby in the car in the car seat behind the passenger seat she leaves her house and when she approached the stop sign at 31st street in 58 avenue north she heard a gunshot immediately felt pain in her face became blind in her whole head and upper body areas covered in blood she got out of the car and started screaming there were a couple of witnesses in the area that aided the victim until EMS arrived and transported her to the hospital the victim was shot in the face with a yet-to-be-determined gun that was loaded with what's referred to as self-defense style ammunition and this is very unique ammunition and it is really designed to wreak havoc and cause the most amount of damage possible because the round is loaded with very small projectiles that expand and explode on impact so it's kind of similar to what you'd find in a shotgun shell with birdshot or very small again very small projectiles and so when she was hit in the face with it those projectiles went into her eyes the bullet itself went down the side of her head went into the car headrest sitting behind her seat and we found the bullet in the back hatch of the car if that child had still been in the car seat behind the driver's seat it would have gone through the child so very fortunate that she moved the baby from the driver's side to the passenger side for whatever reason just prior to this happening but again these are very unique rounds something we don't see very often and it's a combination of get very small projectiles in the usual bullet that you'd find in one of these rounds so the victim is at the hospital she is totally blind in her left eye the only thing that she can see out of her right eye are very large and blurred images the doctors are working she's had several surgeries and doctors are working to save some of recite but it's unknown whether she'll ever see again out of the right I either we have two independent witnesses who were in the area who saw keys and he was sitting about 35 yards away from the stop sign from the intersection at the time the shots were fired keys was driving a red nissan altima which is the car that's depicted here in the photograph to my left to your right and he borrowed this car from a friend immediately upon hearing the shot fired one witness saw he's leaving the area in the red nisa detectives located keys later on monday evening at the quality inn at State Road 60 and US 19 in Clearwater where he was arrested for violating the domestic violence injunction he was interviewed by detectives where he initially lied many times gave many different versions at first denied he was in the area that admitted he was in the area he was playing all kinds of games and just extensively lying about his conduct that day in his statements were inconsistent with the evidence he's admitted also that he was under the victim's car on October fourth when he was trying to cut the brake lines it admitted when he tried to cut those brake lines on October fourth that he was trying to kill the victim and his daughter and that when he was confronted by her he did tell her that she would be dead within a year he said he was trying to kill the victim and his daughter because he wanted the victim to feel the pain he feels by not seeing his daughter on a regular basis so the shooting occurred this past Monday morning about 720 we have interviewed many people but we need anyone who is in the area on that morning to come forward to contact us to call the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office so that we can talk to them and interview them there are probably more people around that's an area where there's a lot of foot traffic I was in a time of the day where people were leaving for work so anybody who is in the area of 58th Avenue 31st street in the time period of probably about 7 15 745 on this past Monday morning we and that we have not talked to we need them to call us he is was sitting in this car as he was waiting for at the intersection and when he was sitting in the car one of the witnesses described him is wearing a hoodie a dark colored hoodie which is everybody i think is familiar with what that means is a sweatshirt with a hood on it he had it up over his head so it was pretty distinctive to see this guy who's the photograph here Christopher Keys sitting in that car with a hood up over his head so anybody that saw him in the area that morning we need him to come forward so we can talk to him and anybody that saw that car now when he left that area he went south to fifty fourth avenue north and we do have some video surveillance that shows that he turned east on fifty fourth avenue north and based on his statements he went east on fifty fourth avenue north north on haynes road back to us 19 and eventually made his way up to the quality inn at state road 60 in US 19 is actually just south of the intersection there we have not recovered the gun that he's used detectives did execute a search warrant at the motel room at the quality inn and the gun was not in the room so somewhere between fifty fourth avenue north in 31st street and the quality inn keys disposed of this gun so we're asking anybody that may have seen Christopher keys in this car in the area of fifty fourth avenue north and state road 60 and US 19 on monday morning in that timeframe to come forward and because he probably tossed that gun out of the car as he was driving from the scene where the incident occurred back to the motel and it could have been in a dumpster he could have pulled in the parking lot it could be on the side of the road but we're working hard to try and find that gun but we really need the public's help and if anybody saw him or a vehicle matching that description if somebody was pulling into work and saw a car by a dumpster or anything along those lines we needed to call us because we need help in trying to find this gun jeez worked at a business called West pharmaceutical in st. Petersburg and on Monday morning he got off work about six a.m. we're in the process of identifying co workers and others but if anybody who knows christopher keys who worked with him or had any contact with him where he made any statements to them around the time of the event we need them to come forward as well especially anybody who may have either provided him or sold him a gun we don't know where he got the gun he had made reference to earlier about having bought a gun recently but we don't know anything else about this gun he had to buy it somewhere or get it from somebody so we need help in trying to identify where he may have obtained the gun from finally I want to just tell you about Keyes history a little bit he's no stranger to committing acts of domestic violence or having law enforcement involvement he was arrested by the Pinellas Park Police Department in September 2003 for burglary in December of 2003 for aggravated domestic battery august two thousand seven for domestic battery August 2012 by the Gulfport Police Department for disorderly intoxication those victims in the previous domestic battery batteries are not the victim in this case so he again is no stranger to engaging in domestic violence and this is a very very serious case of domestic violence this woman is extremely luckily she's alive if she had been sitting probably not even inches probably less than that off to one side or the other the bullet probably would have hit her straight on in the face as opposed to the bullet itself and unfortunately because of these projectiles that were in there in this type of ammunition that was used is that her face was sprayed in with a projectile so very sad situation but the message also is is for domestic violence victims met or women it doesn't matter when you are the victim there is help available and but you need to help yourself by allowing us to help you and when you don't call the police you don't call law enforcement when you got somebody that's outside your window and there cut your brake lines because they want to kill you and the person says you're going to be dead within a year and you don't call us to give us the opportunity to help you bad things are going to happen and so people need to know that there is help available there's a lot of organizations that can help law enforcement here to help and we don't want to see anybody else go through this so you know everybody out there please know that if you're a victim of domestic violence you need to report it as hard as it is and allow us to help you any questions