Officer-Involved Fatal Shooting Ruled Justifiable Homicide

A New Port Richey Police officer and a deputy were justified in the Feb. 17 fatal shooting of a passenger in a car they pulled over near the intersection of U.S. 19 and Main Street, Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe concluded after a four-week investigation that included seven witness accounts.

The findings, dated March 11, were formally released Wednesday.

Deputy Paul Downey and Officer Anthony Pedrero were in “imminent danger” when Jason Wilson refused to obey orders to get out of the car he was traveling in and instead reached down and fired one shot at them, the investigative report states. Four live rounds remained in his revolver when the shootout was over at 1:40 that morning.

The deputy and police officer fired a total of 22 shots – 11 each - hitting Wilson eight times, an autopsy revealed. The likely fatal shot was to the head and penetrated his brain, but the official cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.

A toxicology analysis indicated that Wilson, 29, had cocaine, hydrocodone, methadone, oxycodone and a small amount of alcohol in his system at his time of death.

The shot Wilson fired narrowly missed Sgt. Erik Jay, who was also on scene during the shooting and heard the gunshot, a report states.

“We’re just very, very fortunate that we didn’t lose that officer that night,” Chief Jeffrey Harrington said Wednesday. “That struck very close to home with us and the community. People now know that stuff like this can happen in a town as small as New Port Richey.”

Wilson’s gun, it turned out, had been stolen from a Port Richey home the night before, according to the report. Wilson was a suspect.

Investigators say this is what happened:

Early on the morning of the shooting, after Lora Beth Peterson and Lawrence Lyons met up with Wilson and Thomas Arendes at the Valu-Lodge on U.S. 19 in New Port Richey, they headed over to an apartment on Leisure Lane to buy drugs, according to the report. They were told there weren’t any for sale, so they headed back to the motel.

As they started to leave the apartment, police spotted the two-door Honda Civic, driven by Peterson.

Jay and Pedrero had been patrolling the Leisure Lane area for illegal drug activity in separate cars that night. Downey joined them at the request of a civilian rider who told him that he needed to speak with Jay. The sergeant followed the Civic and Pedrero and Downey followed. Each officer drove marked patrol cars, and all were wearing patrol uniforms.  

As the Civic approached the traffic light at Gulf and Main, Jay noticed its tag light was out and the driver had thrown a lit cigarette out of the window. He decided to make the traffic stop, turned his lights on, and the Civic pulled over to west Main Street.

The officers got out of their vehicles. Jay asked Peterson to get out of the Civic as Pedrero and Downey watched. She complied. He did the same with Lyons, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, and Arendes, who was seated in the back, and they also complied. Arendes told the officers that he had just bonded out of jail after being arrested on a charge of felonious possession of a firearm. 

Wilson, seated on the rear left passenger side, refused several times to get out of the car when Jay got to him. Downey, standing two feet away, saw him reaching for a gun and called out "He's got a gun."

Pedrero and Downey drew their firearms. Wilson grabbed a revolver and fired a shot at Jay.

That’s when Pedrero and Downey fired at Wilson, striking him. He died at the scene.

Peterson and her two passengers later told investigators that they didn’t know Wilson had a gun with him that night.

Wilson has an extensive felony record. At the time of the shooting, he was awaiting trial for a charge of carrying a concealed firearm, which spawned from a traffic stop on September 3, 2010.

In 2008, Wilson was sentenced to 21 months behind bars on a conviction of introducing contraband into a county jail.

In 2002, he was convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm and two counts of tampering with a witness. He served three years in prison and two years of probation.

After being on administrative leaves with pay, as is normal procedures in officer-involved shootings, Pedrero and  Downey have already been cleared to go back to work and have hit the streets for their respective agencies.

“They’re doing well,” said Harrington of his officers.