Pinellas County Sheriff Bob wall Tyrion here this afternoon to announce the arrest of deputy Tim burden on a charge of attempted manslaughter on December 30th 2015 at about 3:20 a.m. deputy verdun shot Dylan Tompkins home after arresting him on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing the arrest occurred as a result of a traffic stop in John's Paz village at village Boulevard in a hundred and twenty ninth Avenue East in Madeira Beach the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Robbery Homicide Unit conducted an investigation of the shooting our investigation determined that deputy Verdun was not justified in shooting Tompkins Holmes deputy Verdun violated state law and committed the crime of attempted manslaughter when he shot Dylan the sheriff's office use of deadly force review board convened conducted its own independent review of the shooting and also determined that the shooting was not justified under law or agency policy the case was referred to the Pinellas State Attorney's Office and the state attorney conducted his own independent investigation the state attorney also concluded the deputy burdens shooting of Thompkins Holmes violated state law and that deputy verdun committed the offense of attempted manslaughter the matter was presented to a pinellas pasco circuit judge yesterday who found probable cause to charge deputy burden with one count of attempted manslaughter the judge issued a warrant for deputy Burton's arrest and deputy verdun turned himself in this morning at the Pinellas County Jail he was booked and released after posting bond as a result I have terminated deputy burdens employment with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office this is especially hard is I believe that Tim Burton is a good man and a deputy who've dedicated his professional life to law enforcement and by all accounts up to this point had an excellent performance record however sometimes even good people do things wrong when we do something wrong we have to accept responsibility no matter how bad or difficult they maybe that maybe and sometimes there are very serious consequences for our errors and we have to accept that in this case deputy verdun acted contrary to law and policy and did not accept responsibility for his actions rather he fabricated facts to justify the unjustifiable into doing so stoop to that which he is supposed to stand against as a law enforcement officer and he made the situation worse than it ever would have been had he just owned up to his actions instead of explaining what actually happened deputy burden made up facts that simply could not have occurred and are wholly inconsistent with the physical evidence and the eyewitness testimony of another deputy deputy verdun shot Tompkins Holmes while he was unarmed and handcuffed behind his back it is clearly established that Tompkins Holmes was unarmed and not a threat because deputy Verdun searched him and handcuffed him which is captured on video an audio recording and the eyewitness testimony of another deputy deputy Tom Randall established that Tompkins Holmes offered no active resistance to deputy Verdun and that he never touched deputy burdens gun moreover when deputy Verdun shot Tompkins Holmes as established by deputy burdens own statements the only gun was the one completely in the hands of deputy verdant and Tompkins Holmes was handcuffed behind his back at the time you shot at this point I'm going to play for you a video and this is video that is looking out from the dashboard camera of deputy burdens Cruiser and what you'll see in the video is deputy Verdun and deputy Randall up by the car that Tompkins Holmes was in after he had been arrested on an obstructing charge they're handcuffing them searching them and then they walk them back to deputy virgin's Cruiser because the camera is facing which would be West out of the dashboard of deputy Burton's cruiser once they pass the front of the cruiser you don't see anything else but the entire incident including the shooting is captured on the audio deputy Verdun had left his microphone pack for the system that we use in the cruiser so the microphone was in the cruiser there is no video of the actual shooting itself but there is an audio tape and so I'm going to play for you now the audio tape in the video and then I'll continue with a comment so Kristen you play it you you stop as you're watching the video deputy burden is the one who is on the right as you're watching the video as you can hear in the audio portion of the recording there is no struggle there's no verbalization by deputy burden that Dylan was reaching for or had his gun and Dylan was talking at a consistent tone up until the very moment he was shot so there's no evidence of any struggle there's no evidence of any buddy reaching for a gun and what you would expect to hear under those circumstances is verbalization and that's the way law enforcement officers are trained this is all inconsistent with deputy burdens version of the events so I'm going to explain to you what deputy burden says happen and I'm going to use these photographs here and these are actual photographs from the scene and this is deputy burdens cruiser and what deputy burden says occurred is when they came around the front of the car Tompkins Holmes was handcuffed and Tompkins Holmes was standing right here and he was trying to get him into the car and as you can hear and you heard on the audio and there's no dispute about Dylan Tompkins Holmes was being mouthy that's it as he was trying to get him into the car what he says what deputy Burton says as he's standing here is is that you saw his pants fall down as they were walking them and that he had bent over to try and pull up the pants so as deputy verdun was leaning over to pull up the pants he put his arm up across the upper chest area of Dylan Tompkins Holmes and as he put his arm across the chest area which would have been he mean he was pushing him back into the car leaning him that way with pressure he'd been told and when he bends over what he hears it are two clicks which indicate to him both of the retention devices on the holster are being deactivated and he claims that at that point after both retention devices are deactivated that Tompkins Holmes is able to get the gun out of the holster and that he is then able to take the gun back and push Tompkins homes and then shoot him twice and do what's called a double tap so in order to accept this version you also have to accept the fact that Dylan Tompkins homes where there's no evidence they had any indication at all about how these retention holders work and you have to accept the fact that he did it while handcuffed behind his back while pressure against his chest and did it with his non-dominant hand towards deputy Burton's gun while his blood alcohol content was 0.28 please drunk this is the type of holster that deputy Verdun had and as you can see on here in order to get the gun out of the holster you can't get it out what you have to do is you have to push on the device that's in here to click it back then you have to push down and you have to push it forward before you can get the gun out and it can tell you that when Dylan Tompkins Holmes is sitting here and you can see in the in the photographs that he is sitting right here on the ledge and he is wedged down in there so he's sitting down like this his hands are handcuffed behind his back and so he in his hands are in here between the seat and his body so in order for this to have happened he has to have taken his hands come around like this been able to while handcuffed do this do this do this and then get the gun out didn't happen no way on top of all that deputy Tom Randall was right there the entire time and testified that Dylan was mouthy but never offered any active resistance and never reached for or touched deputy virgins gun so as you can see by these photos you've got Dylan Tompkins Holmes who's in yellow here you got deputy Tom Randall who's standing right here a couple feet away you've got deputy verdun who's right here and the entire time deputy Randall is watching this the entire time deputy Randall says that this man Dylan Tompkins Holmes never touched deputy burdens gun and he never offered any active physical resistance he ran his mouth but that's it deputy Randall because they're having trouble getting them in the car decided that he was going to walk around the cruiser to go open the passenger side door to help pull Dylan Tompkins Holmes through as deputy Randall took enough steps which are about three steps because we did a reenactment of this he took about three steps which take about two seconds he got right here to the back bumper of the car as when deputy Randall heard the two shots so deputy Randall's eyes were off deputy Verdun and Dylan Tompkins Holmes for about two seconds there is no way that what I just described to you where somebody is handcuffed behind their back is sitting down like this who's a point to eight drunk can reach around do this do this do this and get the gun out and up here at a time can't have assuming deputy burdens version which did not happen occurred deputy burden claims that he was able to take the gun back out of Dylan Tompkins Holmes hands and then he shot him if this was the case the only gun that was there was the gun in deputy virgins hands and Dylan Tompkins Holmes was no longer a threat to deputy Verdun again assuming deputy virgins version which is just impossible it didn't happen couldn't happen there's no way is at that point the threat was eliminated and all he had to do was step back or walk away input distance there was no justification for shooting Dylan Tompkins Holmes after deputy Verdun had the only gun that was present there in his hands and Tompkins Holmes was still handcuffed behind his back when deputy Verdun was interviewed and asked about his justification for shooting Dylan Tompkins Holmes and confronted with these facts that assuming what you say happened occurred and he's handcuffed behind his back and you've got the only gun in this gunfight why did you shoot him he said that Dylan was in an advantage of being able to kick me injure me wound me whatever that's a quote at the end of the video you hear the words oh [ __ ] that's deputy Verdun shooting an unarmed person in handcuffs who through eyewitness testimony of another deputy has offered no resistance because the person might kick you is not the legal use of deadly force simply put Deputy virgins version of events could not and did not happen and he had no legal justification to shoot Dylan Tompkins Holmes I support Deputies actions and is important for deputies to know that they are supported in the very difficult split-second decisions that they make every single day these decisions must not be second-guessed or Monday Morning Quarterback but they also will not be blindly accepted and they must be objectively reviewed which is what we did here all discretionary decisions must be within the parameters of law and policy and when the decisions are outside policy and outside the law the deputy must be held accountable there's nothing more important than doing what is right and nobody is above the law I have an obligation to our deputies but I have a larger obligation to the citizens we serve the office of Sheriff and its integrity the law enforcement profession as a whole and of utmost important upholding the public's trust placed in us in performing our duties we are the guardians of the truth and doing what is right even when doing that is painful as it is here some might say it's a dark day in some respects but it's a bright day and others because it's always a bright day when the truth prevails and the system works this matter has been thoroughly investigated and charges brought within one month of the shooting as what occur had the shooter not been a deputy sheriff we demonstrate here today that nothing is more important than the truth making a mistake is human lying about it and making up facts it could not happen is not and that is wrong and will not stand the civil law applicable to this case is complex but suffice it to say when a deputy commits a criminal act the agency is not viable for damages caused by the deputies actions any successful civil rights suit would be against the deputy individual and not against the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in short we have no civil liability to pay monetary damages as that would fall to deputy verdun personally because of his criminal act however as I said doing what his right is of paramount importance Dylan Tompkins Holmes has no health insurance as I understand it and the reality is is that he can sue deputy verdun and most likely would not collect the money necessary to cover his extensive medical expenses I'm communicating with Dylan's hire and have offered to pay those expenses because I believe it's the right thing to do under the circumstances this case will now proceed in the court system and we here at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office will continue to do our best to protect all citizens and provide the best law enforcement services to those within our community