Evicted resident dead after Manatee County standoff

BRADENTON (FOX 13) - A quiet morning at the Pescara Lake mobile home park changed in an instant.

"I heard the noise of the shot being fired. I didn't realize what it was," said a man named Frank.

Frank, a maintenance worker at the property along 57th Avenue West in Bradenton, was right there when it happened.

"I went to the door without thinking and he said, ‘You better not come in here.’ And I said, ‘You can't tell me what I can't do,’" he continued.

Frank had just seen a longtime resident walk into the office with a gun.  Inside the office, he saw the manager was hurt.

"He was bleeding on his head there was a lot of blood on his shirt," Frank recalled.

Frank wanted to stay and help, but the wounded man, Mike Albaugh, signaled at him to get out.

"He was waving so I got out of the building and called 911," he said.

Deputies flooded the property as the resident -- identified as Glenn Watenpool -- took Albaugh hostage in the clubhouse. They said he was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and an agenda.

"He was about to be evicted. He was not happy about that," said Sheriff Rick Wells.

Two nearby schools were put into a lockdown as a precaution.  Over the next six hours, deputies tried talking him out.  Sheriff Wells said he wouldn't listen.

"He made the point a couple of times that this was his day to be heard and this is how he was going to do it," said Wells.

Eventually the SWAT team entered the building.

"He began to fire at them and they had to return fire for their safety," the sheriff stated.

Watenpool was killed.   Albaugh was rushed to the hospital to be treated for a head injury he suffered when Watenpool pistol-whipped him.   Deputies said he's going to be okay.

As residents return to their homes, there's a great sense of relief this is finally over.  

Frank's thoughts are with the manager, whom he credits with saving his life.

"Mike saved my life, period. That's it. It was a good day," Frank added.