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Deputy's bullet lands in citizen's car door
By MARY BURRELL
Article published on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/031506_fpg-01.jpg) |
| Photo by MARY BURRELL |
| The vehicle driven by Candy Capaz has a hole in the rear passenger door from a bullet shot from the gun of a sheriff’s deputy as he attempted to stop a suspect. Her children of 9 years and 19 months were in the back seat. |
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SEMINOLE – A deputy fired several shots at a suspect Monday, March 13, after he rammed the deputy’s cruiser, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.
One of the bullets lodged into the backseat passenger car door of a motorist who had been waiting for a red traffic light on 102nd Avenue, at the Seminole Boulevard intersection about 8:15 p.m.
According to Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office reports, the incident began on 119th Street, south of Ulmerton Road, when Deputy Paul Giovannoni attempted to make a traffic stop on Robert L. Crapps, 19, of St. Petersburg.
The suspect did not stop and continued eastbound along Walsingham Road until he was intercepted by the deputy just before Seminole Boulevard, reports said.
Giovannoni, who was hired in July 2005, followed the suspect vehicle at a distance until the intersection of 102nd Avenue and Seminole Boulevard. At that point the suspect reportedly made a sudden U-turn. In an attempt to stop the vehicle, the deputy used the precision immobilization technique, pushing the back end of the suspect’s vehicle and putting it into a spin.
The suspect vehicle reportedly rammed the cruiser. The police report states that the deputy attempted to exit the cruiser, when the suspect reportedly backed up into another car and threatened to ram the deputy’s car again.
The police report states that Giovannoni feared for his safety and fired shots at the suspect, who then fled and continued driving south on Seminole Boulevard, report.
As the suspect drove away, the deputy shot and the bullet lodged into the rear passenger car door of a vehicle driven by Candy Capaz. She said she was stopped at a red light at the time. She was accompanied by her children, 9 years and 19 months, who were both in the back seat, she said. No one was injured.
She witnessed the suspect drive away, with the deputy in pursuit.
The police report states the suspect continued driving south on Seminole Boulevard, eventually crashing into a tree in a parking lot on the northeast corner of the intersection of Seminole and Park boulevards. The suspect was captured by other responding deputies not far from his wrecked car, the report stated.
Crapps was taken to Bayfront Hospital for treatment of injuries he received in the crash and then brought to Pinellas County Jail. Detectives reported that the suspect was operating the car with no driver’s license, and they found a misdemeanor amount of marijuana inside the car, and a safe in the trunk with less than 20 grams of cocaine and $2,000 of cash.
The policy on the use of deadly force issued by the Sheriff’s Office states that deputies should not discharge their weapons at or from a moving vehicle unless it is absolutely necessary to protect a law enforcement officer or other persons from death or great bodily harm.
It also states that “a member may unholster his/her firearm when the member reasonably believes the possibility of danger, death or great bodily harm exists to the member or another person.”
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Article published on Wednesday, March 15, 2006
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