 Good evening. My name is Jeff Harrington. I'm the Chief Deputy here at the PASCO Sheriff's Office. So first of all, I just want to preface our comments this evening by saying none of this had to happen. You'll see during the course of our comments tonight that the deputy sheriff that was involved in this incident gave strong verbal commands and instructions throughout the entire incident. Had the suspect just listened to what the deputy had said, none of this would have occurred. We would not be here today talking about an officer involved shooting. So essentially what occurs is that at about 5 30 p.m. Deputy Sheriff is on patrol. He identifies who he believes to be an individual that is wanted for battery by strangulation. This individual, deputy, believes to be one with an extensive criminal history to include multiple felonies of violence directed against law enforcement. So the deputy sheriff stops at the 7-11 on US 19 New York Avenue. He walks over to the suspect and he starts engaging in a conversation and he starts asking him questions and he asks them to come over to him. So in the interim the suspect tries to ignore the deputy and he's over by his vehicle. The deputy continues to walk over to him, engage in further conversation and ultimately the suspect turns and initiates a violent physical confrontation with the deputy. At that point in time the deputy calls for a backup. The fight turns into one that the struggle goes inside the motor vehicle and the suspect then decides that he's going to drive away from the scene with the deputy inside and at that point the deputy is then fighting for his life. During the course of this incident the deputy sheriff continues to yell. He continues to give commands to the suspect to stop, to stop, stop the car repeatedly and at during the course of this interaction the deputy takes out his taser. He deploys his taser multiple times and the suspect continues to drive. At one point in time a witness has told us that they saw the deputy sheriff's legs hanging out of the vehicle and that the suspect drove away from the scene recklessly. So the deputy being in a life-threatening situation felt that he had no other you know he had no other course of action available to him and he was forced to shoot the suspect and as a result the suspect died of his wounds. The suspect in the operation of the motor vehicle they were able to negotiate it off the side of the road and the deputy sheriff as trained like all other deputy sheriffs at the pasco sheriff's office immediately started to render aid. He attempted to provide chest seals and the other deputies that arrived on the scene attempted to do the same thing and at that point it became clear that the the suspect was in distress and he was transported to the hospital and then the FDLE who was with us can talk about some of the details with that. So again the this is something that did not have to occur. The deputy tried to de-escalate it. The deputy tried to use different techniques to mitigate the problem that was taking place. The suspect chose to engage in a course of conduct that required that the deputy sheriff had to defend himself with deadly force. So as I had mentioned earlier when we started this this did not have to occur. The actions that the the suspect took necessitated that the deputy sheriff take other actions to save his life and protect himself from further harm. So with that I will turn it over to the FDLE and this is assistant special agent in charge Megan Palumba. Good evening again it's assistant special agent in charge Megan Palumba with FDLE. We responded to a call request from pasco sheriff's office to help investigate a deputy-involved use of force. This is one of many services FDLE provides across the state to approximately 250 agencies. This is in the very early stages of the investigation. We are still processing the crime scene tonight. We have several witness interviews to do as well as a deputy interview and a lot of digital evidence to examine. We are glad everyone is safe tonight and the deputy is okay but there is no current threat to the community at this time. Thank you. Are there any questions? We're able to share that suspect's name at this time. So at this point the suspect hasn't been positively identified so we're going to wait for the FDLE to share that with Nadine that is appropriate. The deputy going to the 7-11 with the intention of arresting the wanted suspect if he just run into the suspect. So the deputy was on patrol. The person that he identified had been known to us as somebody that we were seeking actively. There was a criminal charge he was wanted and so the deputy sheriff approached him he was by his car at the gas pumps over at the 7-11 so he didn't actually go inside the store itself it was outside by his vehicle. I think that's why Nixon heard that it was the one a man that you are looking for with the strangulation. So we haven't positively identified the person yet so we can't we can't say that one way or the other. Can you describe the vehicle you was on? I don't have that information. Over the course of how many minutes did this take place? Approximately a minute and a half. How far did the car actually get out during that altercation inside of you? I don't have the exact distance for that. But you say the deputy was actually inside? Yes he was actually according to a witness he was inside the car struggling with the suspect in trying to trying to de-escalate and then he had to use his taser inside the car as the suspect chose to drive away at a high rate of speed and the deputy was actually his legs were hanging out of the car. About the driver's side or fast? Drive aside. The car was moving deputy hanging out on the outside? The term they used that he was driving recklessly so yeah it was all on the passenger side that's where the fight ended up falling inside the car in the driver's seat so that is where the driver took off and the deputy sheriff was fighting with him to try to take him into custody. How many shots were fired? I don't have that information exactly. Do you know how fast the car was going? I don't know that. Is the deputy now on Danter's administrative leave at this time? I don't know. So at this point it's common and something like this what we'll do is when you're involved in an officer involved shooting you'd go on administrative leave immediately and so the important thing for us is that he's okay and you know we'll wait until the FDLE does their investigation. That deputy suffered no injuries? I'm sorry? That deputy suffered no injuries? So I don't know the extent of those injuries he's getting checked and so I don't know what the outcome of that evaluation was. How did the car come to the south? Deputy shot the driver and then the car went over to the side of the road and the driver was no longer pushing on the accelerator and then the deputy was able to get out once it came to a stop and that's where he rendered the eight on the side of the road. Was the deputy wearing a body cap? Yes he was. So you're revealing all that good stuff? Yes and we'll evaluate that and we'll make it available. We'll coordinate with the FDLE and when we notify next of kin things of that nature we'll get that information out to you right away. What's the hell long was this suspect wanting? Most recently I think it was the last couple of days that it came out about a week. What's your overall reaction? It's bad. Life is all about decisions and so this suspect decided that he was going to try to fight with the deputy sheriff he decided to engage in the course of conduct that put the deputy's life in jeopardy. The deputy reacted to the decisions and the actions that the suspect took and life is about decisions and so the deputy sheriff decided that he was going to go home tonight and so that's my that's my assessment of what took place tonight. Mother think Dina where the shooting took place they shot him to death in a specific area of the body. That's something for the FDLE to talk about during the course of their investigation. Do you have an age of the suspect? Suspect's not been positively identified yet so we'll leave that for the FDLE to share that information when they have that. How long would you expect US-Maintain to shut down? Until the investigation is completed and the FDLE thinks that they can release the scene. For hours? Don't know. All right any more questions? Thank you everyone have a good evening. Hey Paul? Hey Paul? Paul? Jeff? Hey can you step out of the car please? Step out of the car now. What's what's the matter? Step out of the car. Step out of the car. What's going on? What's the problem? Get out of the car now! Get out of the fucking car! Get out of the fucking car now! Get the fucking car now! Get out! Oh my god get out! Get out! Please get out! You're in shot! You better stop! Stop the car now! Get out of the car! Stop the car! You're in shot! What are you doing? Get out of the car!