Pepper Spraying Pet Store Robber Captured: Sheriff

LUTZ, FL — A 30-year-old Lutz man already behind bars in Land O’ Lakes following a robbery that resulted in him getting shot faces more charges out of Hillsborough County.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Christopher Lilly has been charged with robbery with a weapon by its detectives after a Jan. 3 hold-up at the Lutz Pet Supermarket.

Lilly, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Wednesday, March 15 email to media, “admitted to the Pet Supermarket robbery” while being held in the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office’s jail.

The Lutz crime that added to the charges Lilly faces occurred just before 9 p.m. Jan. 3. Hillsborough deputies say a man went into the 18445 N. U.S. 41 pet shop and demanded cash. When a store employee asked if he had a weapon, Lilly is accused of pulling out pepper spray and spraying it in the clerk’s face.

The employee subsequently provided the robber cash. The man then fled the store in a four-door sedan.

Lilly was arrested in Pasco County on Jan. 26 after deputies there say he walked into a Marathon store at 26556 Wesley Chapel Blvd. with a mask covering his face and a Highpoint 9 mm handgun in tow. Lilly is accused of holding up Emad El Faraj and Ralph Dinardo at that time.

Lilly, a Pasco County arrest report said, ordered El Faraj to open the cash register, which he did. He then ordered both El Faraj and Dinardo into the store’s office. While still holding the gun, Lilly is accused of taking $5,764 in cash from the register and other areas behind the counter.

At that point, the victims confronted Lilly, who had set his gun on the floor next to him, the arrest report said. A physical struggle ensued at which time Lilly is accused of reaching for the gun, the report said.

Dinardo, however, pulled out his own gun and shot Lilly in the thigh. Dinardo has a concealed weapons permit, the arrest report noted.

Lilly faces armed robbery and aggravated assault charges in the Pasco crime. Deputies also say he violated a repeat violence protection order by possessing a firearm.

Lilly remained in the Land O’ Lakes Detention Center March 15, jail records indicate.

Keep up with what's happening by following Lutz Patch on Facebook.

Booking photo courtesy of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office