YULEE, Fla. -- A hit-and-run suspect who deputies say took his own life following a SWAT standoff in Yulee harbored a longstanding grudge against his victim, authorities said Wednesday.
The suspect, identified as Allen James Fourtunia, 59, blamed the victim for losing his job at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in St. Marys and had previously made death threats against him, former coworkers told investigators with the Nassau County Sheriff's Office.
Undersheriff George Lueders said surveillance video looking over the parking lot of the Walmart, located on Arrigo Boulevard, showed the hit-and-run was an attempted murder. Witnesses told investigators Fourtunia ran down Steven Swan, 53, after 5 p.m. before getting out of his car and beating Swan.
Swan was airlifted to UF Health Jacksonville, where he later died.
After Fourtunia drove off, witnesses followed the suspect to his home in the nearby Nassau Lakes subdivision, deputies said. That's when Fourtunia opened fire on the witnesses' vehicles, Lueders said. No witnesses were hurt by gunfire.
Fourtunia barricaded himself inside his home and settled into a standoff with deputies, who called in a SWAT team from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office to negotiate with the suspect, Lueders said.
A 17 minute recording of a 911 call by Fourtunia was released Wednesday. (The entire call can be heard at the bottom of this post)
The 911 operator asked, "are you the one that's shooting at the police Allen?"
"You bet," Fourtunia said.
"Ok, why are you doing that?"
"Well, it's a long story sweetheart," Fourtunia responded.
In his final call, Fourtunia says he wants the operator to make sure than man he killed in the parking lot was Swan.
"Cause, I want you to confirm to me that the person that I killed in the Walmart parking lot was Steve Swan. I can't live with myself if I thought I killed sombody that wasn't him. When you find that out call me back," Fourtunia told the operator.
"I went to Walmart at the end of the street and saw him there and I ran the son of a *expletive* over," Fourtunia said.
Fourtunia was later found inside the home dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound hours later, investigators said. The Medical Examiner's Office is performing an autopsy on his body.
Inside the home, investigators also found a makeshift explosive device with an open propane tank that did not detonate during the standoff. Lueders said deputies have learned that Fourtunia had at one point served in the Florida National Guard.
On Wednesday, Lueders said investigators had learned that Swan had been Fourtunia's supervisor while both worked at Kings Bay back in 2005. Their coworkers told investigators Fourtunia had long blamed Swan for reportedly losing his job, even making death threats against Swan.
Fourtunia also had a criminal record, including a restraining order filed against him. At one point, he had also been committed to a state mental health facility, but had his weapons returned upon his release, Lueders said.
MORE: Full Audio of 911 call placed by Allen Fourtunia during standoff (Warning, audio contains graphic language)
