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Bodycam footage revealed the lengths Florida law enforcement officers took to save a woman from a man wielding a knife when responding to a 911 call took a deadly turn.

Warning: Graphic Content



(Video: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)

Thursday in Tampa, Florida, deputies from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to an apartment complex shortly after 9 p.m. when Jason Douglas Paul, 47, had alleged his neighbor had assaulted him. Threats that he would’ve “snapped” his neighbor’s neck and holding a woman at knifepoint led those same deputies to respond with lethal force after having to break through a window at the sound of screams.

The day after the deputy-involved shooting, HCSO made public portions of the bodycam footage along with a press release that detailed how the situation had found them using the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, also known as the Baker Act, to seek entry into the home of Paul to administer an examination for mental illness.

“Our deputies continued to ask Paul to come outside. Through a window, deputies saw the suspect holding a knife and started to hear an adult female screaming,” read the release. “At this time, Paul took the female at knifepoint into a back bedroom. Fearing for her safety, deputies quickly broke through a window and entered the home.”

“Deputies went to the back bedroom and ordered Paul to put the knife down multiple times. Paul refused to drop the knife, and Deputy John Howes, 30, discharged his firearm and struck Paul,” continued the statement that noted aid was rendered on Paul until emergency medical services arrived and transported him to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead.”

Moments earlier in the footage, Paul could be heard informing an officer about a neighbor, “I would have killed him in self-defense if I would’ve got a hold of him…I would’ve snapped his neck and he would’ve been dead.”

In a press conference following the deputy-involved shooting, HCSO Deputy Joesph Maurer explained how the suspect was “extremely erratic” and “hostile” when speaking with deputies who “did an outstanding job of deescalating the situation and asking for that suspect to please relax — calm down.”

Maurer went on to add that the suspect had threatened to get a gun, “conceal it and kill him,” referring to the neighbor when the deputy responding to the call had gone to speak with that neighbor and witnesses.

It was further explained that after Paul was seen pulling down his own blinds while continuing to yell, a deputy had endeavored to unlock the door using a key obtained from the suspect’s mother, only to quickly shift to breaking through the window in response to the screaming.

Commending the response, Sheriff Chad Chronister stated, “Our deputies sprang to action when confronted with a situation where someone’s life was in immediate danger.”

“Our deputies are trained to protect innocent lives, and that’s what they did,” he added.

It was noted in the news release that the decedent’s criminal history included “Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon and Resisting an Officer Without Violence in 2005. He also was arrested for DUI in 1999.”

Kevin Haggerty
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