Deputies in Hillsborough County, Florida, broke through a window and shot a man who was holding a woman at knifepoint (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office).
Deputies in Florida broke through a window and Christmas decorations to shoot a deranged man who was holding a woman at knifepoint, body camera footage shows.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, cops received a 911 call around 9 p.m. Thursday about a dispute between two neighbors on Camden Street in Tampa. When they arrived, they met with the caller, later identified as 47-year-old Jason Douglas Paul, who was acting “erratically” while standing on his front porch, deputies said. The sheriff’s office released a two-minute portion of a deputy’s body camera footage.
“He’s lucky I didn’t grab ahold of him and f—ing kill him,” Paul yells. “I would’ve killed him on self-defense if I would’ve got a hold of him”
The deputy tells Paul to “relax,” but Paul isn’t having it.
“You tell him that,” Paul screams. “Because I would’ve got a hold of him I would’ve snapped his neck and he would have been dead!”
Paul ended up going inside his home and locked the door, preventing deputies from getting inside, the video shows.
“Just calm down OK,” one of the deputies told him through the window, which is decorated with Christmas lights and garland.
Paul then rips down the blinds of his front window.
“I ain’t do nothing to you,” he shouts.
It was at this point that deputies can see Paul holding a knife through the window.
“Jason, just put down the knife,” a deputy said.
Paul then goes toward a back bedroom, out of view, and a woman starts screaming. Deputy John Howes and other law enforcement officers break through the window. With a piece of garland still draped around his arm as he holds his gun, Howes heads toward the back bedroom and encounters Paul with his arm around the woman while holding a knife.
“Put the knife down, right now,” Howes commands. Another deputy orders Paul to do the same, but Paul doesn’t do it.
Howes fires a single shot at his head, prompting Paul to fall to the ground as the woman continues screaming. Deputies were able to lead her out of the home without any physical injuries.
Paramedics rushed Paul to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
“Our deputies sprang to action when confronted with a situation where someone’s life was in immediate danger,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “Our deputies are trained to protect innocent lives, and that’s what they did.”
Howes joined the agency in February. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting.
