So, why are we here? This is why we're here. Joshua M. McMahon. It's criminal history. Starts in June 2008. Criminal mischief. Criminal mischief. Burglary. Possession of burglary tools. Possession of paraphernalia. Possession of marijuana. Battery. Aggravated assault with a weapon. Violation of probation for burglary tools. Paraphernalia. Possession of marijuana. Possession of marijuana. Violation of pro. Violation of probation for burglary. Burglary of a structure. Robbery with a firearm. Armed burglary. Violation of probation for robbery. and he just got out of the Florida Department of Corrections state prison in October of 2014. So Justin Lewis, he starts as a juvenile with battery and resisting arrest. is an adult. Criminal criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, driving with suspended driver's license, violation of probation, carrying a concealed weapon of firearm, burglary of a unoccupied conveyance, disorderly intoxication, resisting arrest, battery, felony battery, violation of probation for battery, aggravated battery, and he got out of the Florida Department of Corrections state prison in July of 2014. These are just a couple of thugs who happen to be on the beach. This isn't about spring break. This isn't about just beachgoers. This isn't about just good upstanding citizens enjoying themselves on a summer afternoon or a spring afternoon uh in sunny Penllis County. This is a couple of thugs who decided they were going to get in a fight after they'd been drinking and then fight with a deputy sheriff. And Sergeant Bingham uh did what he needed to do to protect himself and the others out there. And he handled that situation extremely well given the circumstances. We're fortunate that he wasn't hurt and others weren't hurt as a result of their actions. This is about McMahon and Lewis and what they did wrong, pure and simple. And when Sergeant Bingham tried to break that fight up and uh McMahon didn't listen to him and Sergeant Bingham used appropriate techniques to try and take him into custody. and you're dealing with a guy, it's a hot day on the beach, the guy is sweaty, he's covered in beer, he stinks and he's got sand all over him and you can't grab a hold of him because he's trying to get away. So, what Sergeant Bingham did was to use appropriate pressure point techniques on his jaw. Uh he started spitting back at him and started resisting him. So, he took him to the ground and he's surrounded by a crowd of two 300 people. U by the way, very few of which came to Sergeant Bingham's aid. And Sergeant Bingham then got on the radio and with just over two minutes after Sergeant Bingham was able to get on the radio, which is probably about halfway into the uh fight is is that other deputies were on the scene. So there was other personnel in St. Pete Beach. Uh Sergeant Bingham was working an offduty detail out there uh to supplement the existing staffing in St. Pete Beach. And that's how we staff it uh during the peak periods uh on the beach. And when he called for help, deputies were there within about two minutes. Uh, but this is what cops do. This is what happens. And not every time you're going to encounter somebody are you going to have backup. Not every time you encounter somebody, you're going to have a lot of people with you. And so you got to do what's necessary to protect yourself and others. And when you got a big crowd and you got somebody who's fighting is is that you got to take action. And that's what Sergeant Bingham did. And as he went to take that action, uh, he was, as you all have seen the video, met with active resistance. and he responded appropriately to deal with that act of resistance and take these guys into custody. And then after he's trying to take McMahon in custody, y'all saw what Lewis did is that he came after Sergeant Bingham and he pushed him back and thankfully was then able to get him on the ground and hold him there till the other other deputies came. So, um you know, I understand why uh this has quote gone viral. I understand that. Uh but you know this is not that unusual of an occurrence. These things happen all the time is the police officers and deputy sheriffs encounter people who are not compliant who do resist and who do want to hurt them and they do everything they can to keep from being hurt and protect the public. At the same time they have absolutely no desire and no intent to hurt these people who are trying to hurt them but they got to protect themselves and that's what Sergeant Bingham did. Um and he acted appropriately. uh he acted within policy and there'll be no further investigation of this. As far as I'm concerned, it's a done deal. It's a closed matter and I'm just thankful that he wasn't hurt, nobody else was hurt because of these thugs who have a long criminal history. If somebody wants to ask questions about it, is that why are these guys out on the street and why are they not getting the message that don't come to our beaches and wreak havoc and engage in this kind of conduct? Uh you know, this the postcard in on St. Pete Beach and I've been out there several times. Uh, and every time that I've been out there, um, it's the same type of crowd. Uh, it's a bunch of young drunk punks who just want to wreak havoc out there on the beach. And the postcard in has decided it's a private beach behind the postcard in. It's not part of the public beach. And there's an issue out there in St. Pete Beach with that because it's very, very hard to differentiate where the private beach uh, ends and where the public beach begins. So, where can you have alcohol and where can you not? And they have a whole section out there of private beach and the Coast Guard in allows because it's private property alcohol on the private beach. You can't have it on the public beach, but it's very hard to tell and it's a blurred line as to where that stops and starts. And go out there on a weekend. Go out there on an afternoon and you'll see the type of people that are there. These aren't spring breakers. These aren't just the high school kids or the college kids from Florida State or UF who happen to be hanging out at the beach. This is a different crowd out there and it's a problem. Uh but we're going to address it. uh we are adequately prepared for spring break uh and uh we will have adequate personnel to make sure that those people who are here for the right reasons and here to have a good time and we want them to be um uh are safe themselves and that they act accordingly. So we'll we'll have it adequately staffed out there for the next month um same as we did last year as we went into the spring break period. So um I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Sergeant Bingham's here. He's willing to answer any questions. Anybody have anything for me? would have been within his rights to tase either of these guys. It seems like it was escalating pretty bad. Sure. And I think you know you can ask him that. I think that what he'll tell you and he's here and you can ask him that, Peter, is that he made a decision. He Yes. Absolutely. Look, when you're in a situation, and everybody wearing a uniform in here has been in that situation, including me, is that when you're in a fight and you're out of gas and you get out of gas fast, okay, because it's a knockdown dragout, is that everything is on the table to protect yourself. Everything's on the table to make sure that you go home safe. And it doesn't matter what you do when somebody's coming at you like these guys were going after him in resisting. They didn't have to do this. They didn't have to resist. They didn't have to walk up and and and do what they did to him. Um so yes, he would have. But he made a decision because once you take that taser out is that there's only one cartridge on that taser. And when you disar discharge that taser, that's it. Okay? And it's in your hand. And now your hands, okay, are not free. You got in your hand. And once you discharge that cartridge and that taser is that's it. you got one shot and if it misses in a situation like that um who knows what have happened what would have happened and all those people um and then if somebody had taken the taser away from him so there's a lot of reasons why he made the decision not to use a taser yeah Brian you want to come up here we all have a video we watch it he did a great job right the question I think everybody's asking a lot of even the people who we spoke with who were on the beach at the time was he radioed for help. It was not two and a half minutes because the video continues for another three or four before it ends and there's still no help for him. So I think that a lot of people wanted to know where was the backup because it really could have gone south. Well, and go down there. Okay, so when you go down to the postcard in on St. Pete Beach and where Sergeant Bingham was was way out on the beach, okay, on the west side and there's only one alleyway and I've been down it. Okay, and it is tough. It's a very narrow, tight alley on the north side of the postcard in and as you come in the parking lot off of Golf Boulevard, there's a gate there. They got to let you through and you really can't even get two cars going both ways down there. And it takes forever, especially when it's a busy beach Saturday evening down there. It takes forever. There's all kinds of cars down there. And if you park in front of the postcard in, if you park in front and you walk to the back, it takes a while to get back there because it is a long distance. Again, we don't have and can't have in every single place where there's a deputy. we don't have two people doing everything and so sometimes it takes a little bit of time but from the time and we're using the radio traffic uh time and from when he got on the radio and he didn't get on the radio right away. He got on the radio and you can see on there when he calls out and then when other people when the deputies showed up. So according to uh what uh our computerated dispatch and radio time show it was about 2 minutes and 20 seconds before somebody was there after he got on the radio and called. Now, when they got on the radio and said they're there, you know, were they 15 ft away or 15 yards away? You know, I don't know that. We're going by, you know, what was uh what they called out on the radio, but at the end of the day, we had um other deputies there on the beach. They were all responding to other calls. Some were in service, but as soon as he got on the radio, people started moving in that direction. And you're never going to have a situation where you've got several uh deputies uh responding to absolutely everything. and he was out there patrolling on the ATV. Um, and we can't have two and three and four all the time. Again, as we're now getting into spring break and we know we're going to have larger crowds with it that we we do have a plan in place uh to make sure that we do have um beefed up personnel out there. You mind just explaining for everybody who saw the video, you know, the suspect's back is to the camera that has been most visible out there. Um could you just describe what actions this suspect was taking towards you and why you made the choices that you did to um keep him at bay? I will. Uh but before I answer any questions, I'm going to make a statement. I want to say that I appreciate the overwhelming public support for simply doing my job. I routinely answer a simple call for help. I am extremely fortunate and proud to be a part of a well-led and well-trained department of skilled and professional deputies. We all prepare diligently with the same goal in mind. Our goal in law enforcement is to enforce the law with a minimal amount of force and a maximum amount of professionalism at all times and under any circumstances so that victims, officers, and offenders can all return safely to their families. It is truly a rewarding and humbling experience to firsthand see the respect and support from this community that all my fellow officers and deputies deserve for putting them excuse me for putting themselves on the line every day to fill our oath and to protect and serve. There are countless officers and deputies across this country have done far more than I have and continue to do so on a daily basis to uh deserve your recognition and thank you to answer that question and I'll try to be as detailed as I can and try to go through the whole thing at one time. What you didn't see when that video started was that there was a large crowd of probably 100 to 200 people that had gathered on the beach and I was approaching on the ATV. There was probably 20 to 30 people that came running towards me, flagging me down that there's a large fight taking place. Just as I got there, I was able to get off of my four-wheeler and look about 20 yards in front of me and see about 15 to 20 people fighting. And there was two groups. One had Mr. Lewis in it, one had Mr. McMahon in it. I had very little time to sit and contemplate and decide whether or not to call anybody or to go ahead and assess the situation, try to keep other people from getting hurt. So, I acted instead of waiting. I went out there. I saw the primary two aggressors. Mr. McMahon was the closest one. I attempted to get him out of that situation to try to deescalate it. The issue of the taser was brought up. Could I have deployed that right then and there? Absolutely. But my main goal was to control that crowd. I have 300 college kids that have been drinking. If I pull out a taser, they're not number one not going to know it's a taser. They're going to see something that looks like a firearm pointed at their direction. Now I have a huge crowd of hysteria on my hands and that's not a good thing. My main goal was to control that situation. So and as the sheriff said in an excited state of delirium where if I were to get knocked out or the taser would have got knocked out of my hand, who knows what would happen with it. It could have been turned on me and now that's a totally different situation or even someone else. My main goal is to protect everybody and to maintain control of that situation. So, I made the conscious decision to keep that taser on me. That was the safest place for it. I attempted to take Mr. McMahon out of that situation. Again, the natural surroundings, the sand, the water, the sweat, the beer, the blood that were all over him, I couldn't control him right away. He was an excited state. When I tried to pull him away, he turned around and he swung and he hit me. That's fine. I can still maintain control of that situation. So, I used the best uh technique that I had, which was to maintain control through a pressure point uh technique. I applied that to his jawline, and I was escorting him backwards. And while I was doing that, I was trying to tell him to calm down and relax. Again, he's excited. I doubt if he even heard a word I said. At some point in time, that's when uh he spit in my face. Again, that's another felony that took place. Now, I have to go ahead and I have to fix this situation. and it's now getting out of control. My back's to uh back is turned towards everyone else. So, the best thing I can do is to put him on the ground, put him under control. I have one person out of the situation. Now, I can deal with the next. And hopefully, when I have the first person under control, now I can slow things down a little bit. I can get on the radio and try to communicate. Again, those videos are unfair because you can't hear anything that's taking place. I tr I I had an earpiece in my ear and when I did communicate with dispatch, I couldn't hear what they were saying and I know they couldn't hear me. All you could hear was the the kids yelling and screaming. It was almost pointless to actually to actually even really try, but we did. Uh thankfully, dispatch was doing their normal great job. They knew who I was and where my where I was at. They went ahead and uh silenced the radio in case I needed it. At that point, I knew my backups were coming. I knew patrol was in the area. Sergeant Langless was right down the street taking care of other issues. Uh the CAD system, if you want to pull it up, can show that those guys were slammed that day from call to call to call both prior to that incident and throughout the night afterwards. I knew they were coming. They're excellent deputies. I knew they were on their way. I knew what they had to deal with. There was probably 20,000 kids at PCI and all their vehicles and everyone walking and coming and going. They had a lot to negotiate. Once they got past PCI, now you're standing on the beach and what do you see? 300 kids making a barrier. You can't see me because I'm down on the ground dealing with the the other two uh subjects. So, again, that's another obstacle we had to deal with. They did a great job getting there. And once they got there, they took over the situation. Uh all four deputies showed up. They were extremely professional. They were efficient. They were quick. They helped me secure Mr. Lewis. They uh grabbed him up off the ground, escorted him out of there, as well as Mr. McMahon. Uh they took uh both subjects off the property, attempt to get them medically cleared, and they stood by with me the rest of the day until uh that uh investigation was complete.