ARMED SUICIDAL MAN HOSPITALIZED
SHOT BY OFFICER WHEN HIS ACTIONS THREATENED POLICE

A man armed with a semi-automatic handgun who told Police countless times during a lengthy standoff that he wanted to die - either by his own hand or by Police - was hospitalized late Saturday after he was shot once by a Clearwater Police Officer at the culmination of an event that shut down the city’s primary east/west traffic corridor for the entire night.

The man, tentatively identified as a 35-year-old Clearwater resident, was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, where he is in surgery as of the time of this release. He was shot once in the torso at 11:41 p.m., about four hours and 45 minutes after he brandished a gun in a small bait shop on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard, beginning the chain of events that led to his being hospitalized.

The Officer who shot the man has been placed on paid Administrative Leave, in accordance with department policies. No one else was injured.

According to witnesses who were in the Clearwater Bait & Tackle Shop just before 7 o’clock Saturday night, the man - dressed in shorts and a T-shirt - came into the 2999 Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard establishment and got himself a beer. When he opened the beer and began drinking from the can, a store employee admonished him, telling him to pay for it. The man then brandished the handgun, said he wouldn’t pay for the beer, and directed the employee to call Police. The store employee did so, and he and at least one customer left the small store unharmed. After they left, the man collected a number of beers and walked outside, where he sat down on a bench in front of the store, and put the gun to his head.

Moments later, Clearwater Police Patrol Officers pulled up, responding to the call of a robbery in progress, and were met by the armed man who was seated just feet from the six lanes of heavily traveled Gulf-to-Bay. The Officers immediately set up a safe perimeter around the parking lot in front of the bait shop and spoke with the man, who made it clear he wasn’t about to surrender the gun.

As additional Officers arrived, they began to re-route vehicular traffic on Gulf-to-Bay, ultimately closing all lanes of the eastern gateway to the city. Traffic on the highway was rerouted at Hampton Road to the west and McMullen-Booth Road to the east, creating long lines of traffic on alternate routes and lengthy delays for thousands of motorists. The highway is expected to reopen to vehicular traffic sometime before dawn today (Sunday).

When the Patrol Officers who were speaking to the man realized he wasn’t going to relinquish the gun, they conferred with their supervisors and Police Negotiators were summoned. In concert with the call-out of the Negotiator Team, the SWAT Team was activated. Over the next four hours, Police Negotiators spoke with the man almost constantly via a cellular telephone provided him by Police. The man kept the gun pointed at his temple the entire time, using his other hand to open and consume beers and light and smoke cigarettes.

On any number of occasions during discussions with Negotiators, the man said he was going to kill himself, and then would challenge Police to shoot him. He was flanked by SWAT Team members who were concealed on either side of the store, making sure he couldn’t leave the immediate area; scores of visitors, residents and passersby were just down the road, watching from behind Police lines.

At about 11:40 p.m., the man stood up and walked westward to the door of the now-unoccupied store; the gun was still pointed at his temple. The man then turned around and walked eastward - past the small bench - and toward a number of SWAT Officers concealed at the eastern side of the store.

As the armed man approached their position, he was shot once in the upper torso. He was treated at the scene by Clearwater Police SWAT Medics before being taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Sergeant Mark Trulock, a 17-year veteran of the Clearwater Police Department, will remain on paid Administrative Leave until the conclusion of a department Shooting Review Board. Three parallel but independent investigations will be conducted: the department’s Office of Professional Standards (Internal Affairs) will determine whether Polices and Procedures were followed; the Criminal Investigations Division (Detective Bureau) will conduct an investigation of the circumstances of the shooting; and the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office will conduct its own investigation of the Saturday night event.

Gulf-to-Bay remained closed to traffic for several hours after the event as investigators from multiple agencies examined the scene.

This is the extent of information available regarding this case at this time. Additional information will be made public as the investigations progress and as circumstances warrant.


/s/ Wayne Shelor
Public Information Officer
Office of the Chief