The killing of a 48-year-old man who died after St. Petersburg police shocked him with a Taser multiple times and restrained him on the ground was “excusable” under Florida law, a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office investigation recently found.
Brian Michael Pepal died last month during a struggle with officers who conducted a wellness check at his home. The sheriff’s office investigated the death as part of the Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force and shared its findings during a news conference Monday afternoon.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri played body camera footage of what he called a “knockdown, drag-out” fight, which showed Pepal swing his fists and push both officers before they fired Tasers and brought him to the ground. The sheriff told reporters that the officers didn’t mean to kill Pepal.
“The officers, under these circumstances there’s no doubt, would have been legally justified in using deadly force at this point, but they showed great restraint in defending themselves by using less lethal force,” Gualtieri said.
Shortly before 11 a.m. on Aug. 22, Pepal’s stepmother flagged down a St. Petersburg police sergeant and asked for help. She told police her son was experiencing a mental health crisis at his apartment in the 7200 block of Fifth Street North. Earlier that morning, he had been knocking on doors in another neighborhood where he used to live, saying he was “looking for pedophiles,” according to the sheriff.
“He also threatened to use a machete to cut off a neighbor’s head earlier that morning,” Gualtieri said.
When police arrived for a welfare check, Pepal came out and “violently attacked officers,” the sheriff said.
Body camera footage shows Pepal opening the door, saying “where is the police department?” and walking toward the two officers before punching one of them in the head. Pepal then pushed each officer into the sides of two cars with enough force to dent the vehicles, Gualtieri said.
Both officers began firing Tasers at Pepal, the body cam footage shows.
One officer, identified as Daniel Poveda, appeared to instruct the other officer, Tammy Craig, to continue firing her Taser at Pepal, saying: “You got to keep popping him, you just keep popping him,” the footage shows.
The officers could be heard telling Pepal to put his arms behind his back. He cried for help. After a continued struggle, officers forced Pepal’s arms behind him into handcuffs. They further restrained him by crossing his legs toward his back.
Streaks of blood were visible on the pavement beneath him. Shortly after Pepal stopped moving, the body camera footage ended.
Officers realized Pepal had stopped breathing and began lifesaving measures, including CPR, until paramedics arrived and took him to a hospital, Gualtieri said.
Pepal was pronounced dead at 12:04 p.m. An autopsy listed his manner of death as homicide and his cause of death as “traumatic asphyxiation with contributing conditions of restraint, coronary atherosclerosis, obesity, and schizophrenia,” according to Gualtieri.
The medical examiner found marijuana in Pepal’s system.
Gualtieri said the medical examiner’s office determined that a combination of Pepal’s face-down position on the ground, underlying health conditions and pressure applied by Poveda’s knee on his shoulder restricted his breathing.
“There was nothing on his neck, nothing anywhere near his neck,” Gualtieri said. “It was only on his shoulder as he was there trying to keep him on the ground as Pepal was moving about.”
The sheriff added that Pepal’s death was considered an “excusable homicide” under Florida law. If officers had intended to use deadly force, he said, it would have been considered “justifiable homicide.”
The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office does not intend to file charges related to the incident.
“There was no intent in the actions of Officer Poveda and Officer Craig to cause the death of Brian Pepal and the force used by Officer Poveda and Officer Craig was a reasonable response to the circumstances presented by Brian Pepal’s own actions,” State Attorney Bruce Bartlett wrote in a letter.
“They did everything 100% right,” the sheriff said of the two St. Petersburg officers. “We’re very lucky, very fortunate that the officers were not more seriously injured as a result of Pepal’s attack on them.”
Craig, 56, was taken to a hospital and required stitches on her knee. She has been a sworn officer with the St. Petersburg Police Department since 2005.
Poveda, 44, has been a sworn officer with the department since 2007.
Gualtieri said Pepal had been taken into protective custody under Florida’s Baker Act twice in the past two years. In addition to schizophrenia, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder but did not take his medications, the sheriff said.
St. Petersburg police can dispatch trained mental health professionals through its Community Assistance and Life Liaison program. Asked by a reporter Monday why mental health experts did not respond to the wellness check, Police Chief Anthony Holloway said it was because Pepal had made threats of violence.
“We do not send civilians to those type of calls,” Holloway said.
Lanette Cruz, Pepal’s stepmother who raised him since he was a teenager and who called police that morning, told the Tampa Bay Times before the news conference Monday that she was not yet ready to comment on the circumstances of his death.
“He was such a caring, loving person,” Cruz said. “He would give anybody, even somebody he didn’t know, his last dollar, if he thought they needed it.”
Cruz said Pepal’s dog, Penny, dug her way out of his yard after his death and was fatally struck by a car not far from his house. The family had the dog cremated.
“We were hoping to find Penny alive, but I can tell you now that they would rather be together,” Cruz said.
