A judge has denied bond for a former middle school principal who is accused of going on a violent rampage that left two people dead and at least eight others injured.
Anthony J. Giancola, 45, appeared in court Saturday morning, the day after he was arrested in Pinellas County. The judge ordered him held without bond.
Giancola is suspected of committing a series of crimes, all of which took place over the span of a 30-minute time period in Lealman and Pinellas Park.
Investigators said Giancola stabbed four people inside a group home for the hearing impaired on 35th Way shortly before 11 a.m. Two of those people, Justin Lee Vandenburgh, 27, and Mary Anne Allis, 59, died.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the preliminary investigation suggests the four were random targets.
Investigators said Giancola then went to Kenvin's Motel on Haines Road, where he bludgeoned the owners of the motel with a hammer.
The victims were identified as Kanu Patel and Indiranden Patel, both 57. They were transported to Bayfront Medical Center. Kanu Patel's injuries have been described as life-threatening.
Investigators said that several minutes later, Giancola drove his car into a group of people standing outside a duplex in Lealman. Four people were injured.
A short while later, investigators said Giancola hit a teenage boy who was riding his bike several blocks away.
Giancola was arrested after K-9s tracked him to a wooded area at 66th Street and 62nd Avenue North.
The former Van Buren Middle School principal first made headlines five years ago, when he was arrested while trying to buy crack cocaine from undercover police officers in his office at the school. He was sentenced to a year behind bars.