BY JOSÉ PATIÑO GIRONA
A St. Petersburg police officer
has been fired for shooting at a vehicle and another has been fired for twice
kicking a suspect while he was handcuffed on the ground, according to police.
Both incidents occurred last
year.
The firings came after Interim
Chief David H. DeKay convenened the Chain of Command and Shooting Review
boards, which investigate allegations of police misconduct. The results were
released Thursday.
The shooting incident involved
Officer Brian Fernandez, who was hired in June 2013 and was still in his
probationary period. According to the boards’ reports, Fernandez was sent in
December to a call of a reported stolen car near 20th Avenue and 11th Street
South.
In the front yard of 2011 11th
St. South, Fernandez noticed a group who was acting suspiciously and one who
appeared to be using a tool to enter a vehicle.
Fernandez parked his patrol car
and walked to the home. When the group gathered in the front yard noticed him,
they ran to their cars parked nearby, according to the review board documents
released on Thursday.
One suspect, later identified
as 17-year-old Quade L. Everett, of St. Petersburg, ran past Fernandez toward a
Ford F-150 pickup. Fernandez drew his handgun and pointed it at teen, telling
him to stop. Everett, though, jumped into the driver’s seat of the pickup,
according to the documents.
Fernandez heard the pickup
truck accelerate and thought it was coming at him, according to the police
report. He shot at the pickup six times as the vehicle moved forward and as he
“stepped sideways,” according to police records.
The shots struck the passenger
side and the truck’s back window. Everett was hit by a bullet and is recovering
from a serious injury, according to police records.
Fernandez, 31, broke several
agency policies, including a department rule that “officers shall not fire at a
moving vehicle or any occupant of a moving vehicle,” according to police
documents.
The police department’s
use-of-force policy prohibits officers from putting themselves in harm’s way by
positioning themselves in front of cars. If they must approach a motor vehicle,
they are expected to do so from a safe angle and have a place they can retreat
to if the car approaches them.
In the second case, Det.
Bartholomew Varacchi initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle in June. The suspect
drove at Varacchi, though he didn’t hit him with the vehicle.
Officers pursued the suspect,
with the chase ending after a crash and a foot pursuit.
The suspect was apprehended and
was handcuffed as he was lying face down. When Varacchi arrived on the scene of
the arrest, he kicked the suspect in the upper body. Varacchi, 45, was pushed
away by officers, but he was able to get to the suspect again and kick him a
second time in the upper body, according to police records.