Man Who Fatally Shot Himself Tuesday During the Serving of a Search Warrant Identified

The man who committed suicide Tuesday morning after officers forced entry to his Tampa Drive apartment to execute a search warrant has been positively identified through his fingerprints as Brandon Surji, also known as Brandon Hunter, 29, who was wanted for questioning in a March murder case.

MNPD SWAT officers made entry to the apartment at 5:30 a.m. after receiving no response from repeatedly announcing their presence over a loudspeaker. As the officers cleared the apartment, they came upon Surji armed with a pistol inside a bedroom closet. He ignored commands to drop the gun. Surji fatally shot himself in the head when a police dog was deployed to help bring him into custody.

Found during the subsequent search of the apartment were an AK-47 rifle, more than one pound of meth, more than one pound of marijuana, and various firearm parts.

Homicide Unit detectives, who applied for and received the search warrant, wanted to question Surji in relation to the continuing investigation into the March 31 murder of Donzell Young Jr., 33, who was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Rodeway Inn on Briley Parkway. Work on that case is ongoing.