all right um I'm pan County Sheriff Bob gualter and we had a deputy involved shooting this evening deputies responded to 252 Whisper Lake Road here in Palm Harbor at about 10 minutes to 7 uh this evening uh we received a phone call um that the person who lived here in the house Stanley everol e v RS o l who's a 55-year-old male uh had been a fight with his girlfriend over the last couple of days his girlfriend uh is a uh female by the name of Laura L O R A RoR r i HT they live here together and apparently RoR had won a European Vacation a by one get one free european vacation and she decided to take a friend of hers A girlfriend of hers on this trip and not ever saw he apparently in the last day or so became extremely upset about that uh he owns a crossbow and he threatened uh her with the crossbow several times over the last day or two and told her uh that if she called the police she was going to kill the cops who showed up so she didn't call the police uh he continued with this angry and erratic Behavior over the last couple of days uh tonight she was in communic ation with the friend who she was going to take on this european vacation and when the friend no longer could communicate with her via text message she became concerned and the friend had her daughter uh come by the house when the friend's daughter came by the house she saw uh Stanley everol standing in the front yard with what she believed at the time to be a rifle or a shotgun some sort of a long gun and that is consistent with the crossbow uh that we have recovered here at the scene and at a distance that crossbow would look like a shotgun or a rifle so when the girlfriend's or I'm sorry the friend's daughter saw ever saw with the what she believed to be a firearm she called the Sheriff's Office so deputies were responding out here with information uh that ever saw was upset uh with information that he had a rifle or a shotgun and that's what they were responding to when deputies arrived here at the scene uh the girlfriend Laura RoR arrived back at the residence they moved her off to the South and we're in the process of talking with her uh one of the deputies went around here to the west side of the house and the residence is right over here off of my left shoulder and as he was looking through the window uh he could see everol inside the residents and he had the crossbow in his hand and so we're talking a crossbow with what I would call an arrow there's a more technical name for it but it was in the bow and the crossbow was cocked and he had several other arrows in a case uh that was with him and he was inside the residence uh it shortly after the deputy saw him inside the residence he exited the residence and there were two deputies uh who were standing trying to assess the situation on the northeast corner of the residence is evera exited um he pointed the crossbow at the two deputies who were here on the northeast corner there were two deputies standing across the street who were covering the deputies who who were up at the corner of the house and the two deputies across the street were uh Corporal Casey Hunter and Deputy Brian SBR uh they both had automatic semi-automatic rifles and when everol leveled the crossbow at the two deputies who were standing at the corner of the house they fired each fired two rounds uh three or four rounds struck everol uh he was not pronounced deceased here at the scene he was transported to VFR Medical Center where he has since been uh pronounced deceased uh the crossbow is sitting here in the yard I've seen it uh there are several other bows there is fully cocked ready to go uh and the distance at which the deputies were standing uh when he pointed that crossbow at them was well within the distance of the crossbow and we're lucky that the deputies weren't shot with that crossbow bll prooof best don't aren't don't stop uh those arrows that come out of a crossbow and luckily there was cover across the street and Deputy uh sudbrink and Corporal Hunter uh were able to effectively uh make sure that the other two deputies weren't shot as far as a criminal history of everol apparently he spend some time most of his time down here he does spend some time up north uh we know of no criminal history for evera we don't have anything in our system as far as any history of mental health but from the information that we are receiving and and as always uh this is an evolving situation the investigation is fresh it's ongoing uh but he was acting erratically in the last day or so and exhibiting signs of what I would characterize based on the statements that have been made to us as mental health issues anger issues ETC but we don't have any history of that he's never been bankera acted before that we know of and we don't have any reports of anything occurring here uh at the res involving him so uh we'll continue the investigation we'll look thoroughly at that to see uh if there's anything in the background that would have shed any light on this but we don't have any experience with him so uh with that answer any questions that you have Sheriff does this investigation Take A Different Twist because the deputies who actually shot the suspect weren't the deputies who were actually in danger no because the whole purpose of that was it is is that uh the deputies were across the street were covering the deputies that were at the corner of the house and the deputies who were at the corner of the house one of the reasons and again this is fluid and it's evolving and it's unfolding and it's like I said very fresh but where from where they were um they also had a crossfire situation because uh the girlfriend and the deputy who was interviewing her were to the South Beyond where the suspect was so that was a concern that they had in their mind uh the deputies from what I know at this point said that they were in fear uh they were considering fire in but they were also worried about that Crossfire situation so the deputies who fired had clear shots they were across the street they had rifles they didn't have handguns and could take effective action it it's normal uh it's a usual circumstance when you have a cover type situation that uh deputies contact deputies aren't necessarily the ones that are going to fire the cover deputies would because they're in a position to best affect that action so they were protecting the other two deputies when they fired uh they saw him turn they saw him level the crossbow at the two deputies and again well within the range that the crossbow could fire and so no issues there that I see shff were they already in cover mode and in that position because they were told by the girlfriend that he had already made those threats they were aware of that going into this well what they were aware of is is that he had at that time what they believed to be a rifle or a shotgun and so that they knew what they were responding here to was is that somebody that uh had made threats and was armed with a rifle or a shotgun that's what they knew at that time is they were responding here so the of course they were taking great caution with covering concealment and that's why they had positioned themselves around the corner of the house but I can tell you that they were not totally concealed because they were trying to again assess the situation so they were standing by the corner of the house but they weren't concealed by it because they were trying to get a vantage point to see what happened when he abruptly exited the house and so when he abruptly comes out of the house again remember what I told you is was that a deputy saw him through the window in the house and they thought the situation was contained he was in the house and they were trying to get a plan when he abruptly exited and when he abruptly exited the house is when he turned and pointed the crossbow at those two deputies so uh they were in a vulnerable position they were in a position where they would have been shot by it had he been able to pull that trigger and so the deputies across the street were acting to prevent their fellow deputies from being shot with that crossbow Sheriff does the fact that two deputies fired at once tell you that there was was pretty clear agreement that this was a Justified shooting well what it tells me is they both they both perceived a threat and they both fired at the same time you know and that they had they both believed uh that the other deputies were uh in danger and their lives were in danger and they needed to do what they did in order to uh make sure that those deputies weren't shot so can you talk about how the response changes given this person apparently was armed with some kind of longer weapon not necessarily a handgun maybe some kind of unconventional weapon how does that change the response well it changed the response because as you can tell from what I said is that Corporal Hunter and Deputy subr uh took out their rifles uh you know so they were coming to a situation they weren't coming to a situation with somebody with a handgun or a knife they were coming to somebody a situation where somebody supposedly had a shotgun or a rifle that's why they had their rifles out uh because you want to meet that type of force with equal force and again the distance in which they were across the street offering cover is that uh the more effective with the rifle than with the handgun so given the totality of the circumstances and how they would prepare for something like this coming again knowing that you had somebody uh who was armed they believed armed with a a rifle or a shotgun a long gun is that everything looks like it was done the way it should have been done and appropriately again they were trying to establish a perimeter they were trying to use covering concealment but you got to be able to view what's going on they had to come out from the the uh the side of the house and when they were standing again away from the house but towards the corner of it is when he turned and and pointed that crossbow at them and do you know how long I mean I assume it was a matter of seconds that the gun was pointed and that he was taken out correct you know that's not that's one of those things where before you act and you shoot you don't wait for him to shoot it's too late at that point uh you wait for him to act you wait for him to shoot then deputies are going to be dead uh and we can't have that uh you can't wait as soon as somebody takes it and takes that crossbow or takes a firearm as soon as they raise it and they level it at you um you know you got to take action and you know what the girlfriend had said is that he made those several statements uh that uh if the cops came he was going to kill the cops um when the girlfriend who was here and that's uh RoR when she was on the phone uh with the other woman and she learned the cops had been called she became extremely concerned and told the woman on the phone something to the effect of oh know he's going to kill the cops because she hadn't she didn't she didn't call the cops herself and apparently that's one of the reasons why she didn't call in the last day or so as all this was evolving because of his threats toward law enforcement is he an avid Hunter is that what he had his crossbow and were there any other weapons at the home you know I don't know that again we don't know you know it's it's fresh this is a few hours old it's evolving uh again he had additional arrows as I would call them there and there were some knives he was also armed with some pretty big knives I don't know as far as any other weapons in the home we haven't been in the home yet both deputies unpaid administrative planning outcome of the investigation well yes our routine practice in this situation is is that the the deputies who fired their weapons will be placed on uh routine paid administrative leave uh and until they're cleared to come back to duty did he hold her hostage at any point you said that couple days so she was free to leave and go but didn't call cuz she didn't want the police or Deputy correct and in fact no she was not held hostage and she wasn't held against her will and in fact uh Laura RoR was not here uh when the deputies arrived she was down at the post office the pal maror post office just the south of us here and I guess to the north of us here actually and uh so she was actually not here and that's when again the woman who was supposed to go on the trip sent her daughter by the house and she wasn't here so she was actually up at the Post House at the post office so Laura RoR was never uh based on any information we know at this point never held against her will she was threatened and she was threatened with a crossbow and he pointed the crossbow at her and told her that if you call the cops I'm going to kill the cops who come so she was obviously concerned uh but she didn't call us uh she didn't take any other action and again it was the daughter of the girlfriend who called and then that caused her great concern because of the statements about going to kill the cops look at the spelling of the Deputy sure Casey Hunter c y Hunters hu n t r and Brian b r i a an and it's sudbrink s v r i n k and you said eversol eversol e v is in victor e r s o s o l Stanley D eversaw state of Earth is 6261 55y old male and then Laura RoR Laura l o r a last name is RoR r i c h t e she's born in 1947 so the the uh the the uh girl who drove by the house uh is Lisa Sam Petro s a m p i e t r o Lisa is the one that called and said she saw Stanley with the rifle or shotgun that's her that's that's Laura's daughter no that's the that's that's the daughter of the friend and the friend is um Mary Joe b a r r a n c o so Mary Joe is going to go on the trip with Laura to Europe she's the friend and then the daughter who's Lisa is the one that came by and saw stainy with the rifle shotgun I know it's confusing but it is what it is and you got what I got are you able to send show us a picture of the the gun itself yeah we can try and get one to you have the crossbow yeah it's laying there in the front yard forensics is processing the scene but we'll see if here shortly as we usually do I'll get you a picture of that and we'll make every effort to do that how big is the arrow or whatever oh it's good size yeah you it's when I just saw it there laying in the yard I mean at a distance it it does look like a long gun and it's black and it's got like a grip on it so um we'll