Okay, anybody not ready? Good afternoon. I'm Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and with me is St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway. And we're here this afternoon to talk about an officer-involved shooting uh that happened at 121 Persian Street Northeast here in St. Petersburg. Uh the officer involved in the shooting is an officer with the St. Petersburg Police Department, but because it was a St. Pete officer, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office under the Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Task Force is the investigating agency. What happened here this morning or this morning was at about 11:20 a resident of the home by the name of Kerry Settlock called the St. Petersburg Police Department because his brother, Casey Settlock, was attempting suicide and acting very erratic. This is one of those really sad situations where you have somebody that has a real significant history of mental health issues and drug abuse and attempting self-harm in the past. Uh Kerry did not want to call the cops. He wanted to try and handle this himself. His brother was in the house and he was able to disarm him. And he was able to get the knife away from Casey. He took the knife and put it in a Chevy pickup truck that was sitting in the driveway. And he decided though because of the erratic behavior that he still needed to call the police. So when the officers arrived Kerry told the officers that Casey was inside uh and he was still acting erratic. So the officers went in. And as they went into the house, they went down the hallway and saw Casey standing at the end of the hallway and he had the knife in his hand and he was saying, "Shoot me. Shoot me." to the officers. The officers used less lethal to try and neutralize the situation, trying to de-escalate the situation. And they deployed a taser, which again is less than lethal. Tried not to have to do what they ended up doing eventually, which which was to have to shoot him. When he was tased, he fell on the ground, and he fell inside what is his bedroom in the residence. He fell to the ground. The knife came out of his hand at that point, but was on the ground next to him. And he was still saying, "Shoot me." as he was reaching for the knife. The officers tased again. A second officer deployed a taser, and the original officer recycled the original cartridges onto taser again to try and keep from the situation situation escalating. But unfortunately, as happens, and sometimes a taser is ineffective, and Casey continued to reach for the knife. At that point, there were two other officers between the shooting officer and Casey. And Casey grabbed the knife and was getting up off the ground with a knife in his right hand as he was trying to get toward those officers. The shooting officer was concerned for his safety and the others, and felt like that they were in imminent peril. So, he fired four times. Casey was shot. He was taken by EMS to Northside Hospital, where at about 12:20 p.m., he was pronounced dead. Everything I'm telling you now is preliminary based upon what we know at the moment. It's subject to additional interviews and processing the crime scene, but that's what we know. There's a new law that goes into effect in Florida within the window of the shooting, and the law is an extension of the constitutional provision of Marsy's Law. And under the law that goes into effect on July 1st, we are prohibited. Big believer in transparency, and transparency's very important to get out names and to disclose everything as I always have in the past. But under this this new Florida law, we are prohibited from releasing the officer's name for the first 72 hours. So, his name won't be released until Thursday because of the new law that takes effect on Wednesday, which is in the window of the So, after that we'll release the officer's name. Um again, we will do interviews this afternoon, uh continue to process the scene, look at the body worn camera video. But, this is a sad situation where somebody has obvious mental health issues and a long history of drug abuse uh and a lot of different as we call them co-occurring disorders with drugs and behavioral health and mental health. And he's saying shoot me and the officers tried not to have to do that. They didn't want to do it, but when he's coming up off the ground and he re-armed himself with that knife I have a photograph of the knife. It's about a 4-in serrated blade knife. It's covered in blood. Uh Sergeant Mackesy from the Public Information Office will uh give you all a copy of that knife. It's It's in the room uh right where he was shot. So, we'll release that here as soon as we get over this this afternoon. Does anybody have any questions? >> Yeah, Sheriff, could you just go over cuz some people might not know that split-second decision of of life and peril, life and death and that it takes a it takes to shoot somebody like that. >> Yeah, well, you know, you know, when when somebody has been tased and they're saying shoot me, shoot me and they're reaching for the knife and they're coming up off the ground and they're within striking distance with a 4-in serrated blade knife. The officer did what he had to do from everything that appears right now. You know, you got to make decisions and what we want is for the cops to go home safe and we also want in these situations for the person who's engaged in this to be as safe as they can be. Uh it's very sad situation like I said because this is evident that this guy has serious drug issues and mental health issues and addiction issues and he had been attempting suicide and then that's why the call came in. His brother was calling because he was attempted suicide. So, I guess some people would characterize this as the typical suicide by cop uh and the cops were telling him to drop the knife, drop the knife and tased him. Uh again, tried to de-escalate it and use something that is not lethal. And when he fell in the room, the knife went to the ground, but he's reaching for the knife again and then getting up toward the cops. So, you know, it's just like I said, it's sad, but you know, the cops got to go home safe and they got to make a decision and they made that decision to protect themselves. >> And that's sort of that psyche that's now in that that officer's mind that was just like he had to be deploying lethal force like this. >> Well, he's a professional, he did his job, you know, and we'll make sure that he's okay and make sure that he gets any help he needs and you know, no no law enforcement officer wants to do what this officer had to do today because that's not what we're here for, you know, and it's not what we do, but we're also here to make sure we're safe and we're going home safe and if that's what somebody is intent on doing, then this is what happens and you know, I can't say it you know, I've said it several times already, I'll say it again, it's sad and you know, but they did try and they tried with everything they had to keep it from happening. When he was at the end of that hallway and they were probably 25 ft away from him and they were telling him drop the knife, drop the knife, drop the knife and as they're saying drop the knife and they got their tasers out, he's saying shoot me, shoot me, shoot me. So, they tased him and he fell into the room and the knife goes to the ground and he picks up the knife again. So, you know, it's obvious what he wanted and just unfortunate. >> Um, what was the distance between >> Yeah. Are you media? You're not media. I'm I'm talking to the media, okay? So, any any of the media got any questions? >> Did you find any drugs in the house? >> We're still processing the scene. So, not that I'm aware of. All right, thanks everybody. >> Thanks for sharing the details.