A tip from the public has led to the arrest of a man accused of shooting another man in the face with a pellet gun in an apparent hate crime.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office made the arrest late Thursday after the agency received a phone call saiding where to find the man. Deputies arrested 25-year-old Daniel P. Quinnell at a motel on State Road 54 near Interstate 75.

It was Quinnell's mother who ultimately turned him in. She told detectives her son suffers from depression and is extremely "predjudice."

"She did something that is very hard to do,” said Det. Lisa Schonenan, Pasco County Sheriff's Office, "to call the police on your own child. But she recognized the danger.  She didn't want to see anyone get hurt.  She didn't want to see law enforcement get hurt and she didn't want to see any innocent people get hurt.  And she was concerned for her own son's welfare."

According to deputies, a man and his girlfriend were shopping at the Walmart on Land O' Lakes Boulevard early Wednesday when Quinnell began harassing them.

Authorities said Quinnell believed the man was from the Middle East.

As the man and his girlfriend were approaching their car, Quinnell came up to them and made several comments and then shot the man in the face with a pellet gun, according to officials.

Video of the incident was released Thursday afternoon and showed the victim and his girlfriend, and another shopper walking toward the entrance of a Land O’ Lakes Walmart with Quinnell following closely behind.
 
After the questions, Quinnell began shouting racial slurs, officials said.

Detectives said Quinnell then raised his pellet gun and shot the victim point blank in the face, firing off at least 20 shots, even some while running away.

The victim said he still has two pellets lodged in his face; one in his cheek and the other just above his eyebrow.

Detectives said when they got to the hotel where Quinnell was staying, he didn't resist arrest. Instead, they said he immediately put his hands behind his back to be cuffed and admitted to everything.

He told detectives the shooter in this surveillance video was him.

Quinnell also told detectives that he thought Mohammed was Middle Eastern then began shouting racial slurs before firing a pellet gun at him at least 20 times, hitting him twice in the face.

Detectives arrested Quinnell and charged him with aggravated battery.

Detectives said they've dealt with Quinnell more than 50 times, including two battery arrests. One back in 2010 for allegedly punching his then wife, another in 2011, after he was accused of attacking an elderly landlord.

Detectives said he has shown no remorse for this latest incident and when they told him Mohammad wasn't Middle Eastern, he continued making racist comments.

"I brought that to his attention. He said it didn't matter to him. I'll just use the words 'they're all the same,' those weren't his words, but you can fill in the blanks," said Lisa Schonenan with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Mohammad said off camera that although he is relieved Quinnell is behind bars, his life has changed forever.

He said he will always be on guard now whenever he is in public.

Mohammed informed us he did have a licensed gun on him at the time of the attack, but did not draw it in self defense.

Quinnell is being held on $20,000 bond.