Inset: Devin Hansen booking photo Pinellas County Sheriffs Office. Background: YouTube screengrab from ABC affiliate WFTS-TV depicts the Hansen’s Cadillac on April 17, 2024 following his arrest.
In a bizarre twist of events in Florida this week, St. Petersburg resident Devin Hansen is charged with murder in the first degree after police say he shot his wife at his parent’s house, battered his mother, and then, as his spouse was being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, chased the emergency vehicle down in his Cadillac before later crashing his car.
Hansen, 28, is also charged with domestic battery, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and obstructing justice, according to a charging report from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
Hansen’s wife, Yasmin Grijalva, died at the hospital. The couple were married for three years and share a child.
The shooting occurred on April 17 at 10:25 p.m., an arrest affidavit notes. Police responded to a call about shots fired in the area of 29th Avenue North in St. Petersburg and later learned that Grijalva was at the home with Hansen when a “verbal argument” erupted.
Police said Hansen’s parents own the home but that he also had a room there. Grijalva was inside that room as she and Hansen’s mother told the man to leave, police said.
“Once the suspect left the room where the victim was located, he went into his room and armed himself with a handgun. The suspect went back to the bedroom where the victim was located, kicked in the door, pushed his mother down, and pushed the victim against a dresser,” police said.
Then Hansen is accused of holding a gun to her head and stating that “he would kill her,” the arrest affidavit notes.
Hansen fired multiple shots into the wall behind him before he turned the gun on his wife and fired, “mortally wounding” her.
After this, he proceeded to hit his own mother. Police said his mother, Karen Hansen, was trying to break up the fight. For her efforts, her son allegedly hit her in the head several times with a blunt object.
As Grijalva was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, Hansen reportedly gave chase in his black Cadillac. There was a short pursuit by police who were along the route already but the Florida man managed to briefly escape. It was not long thereafter, though, that Hansen crashed into a group of rocks, local NBC affiliate WFLA reported.
Hansen remains in detention and has a bond set of $25,000. Court records show the bond was initially set at zero but that was amended. He is represented by a public defender. A local prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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