Arrested Strawberry Crest High School teacher died by suicide, records show

Chris Tisch, Tampa Bay Times
·1 min read

Editor’s note: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, resources are available to help. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or suicidepreventionlifeline.org, or call the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay by dialing 2-1-1.

A Strawberry Crest High School teacher who had been arrested in an online child predator sting died by suicide last week, according to the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Anthony Peace, 37, shot himself with a shotgun on Thursday near his home in Plant City, according to information provided by Plant City police to the medical examiner’s office.

Peace was last seen alive by his mother after a doorbell monitor app showed him walking outside his home carrying a shotgun, after which 911 was called. Plant City police and fire-rescue crews found Peace dead in a field, police told the office.

Peace, a history teacher at Strawberry Crest, was arrested Wednesday on the high school’s campus in Dover after soliciting nude photographs online from an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old boy, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said. He also sent the detective explicit videos of himself, deputies said.

He faced several felony charges, including five counts of transmission of material harmful to a minor.

He was released from Orient Road Jail on Thursday on $14,000 bail, records show.

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