All right, good afternoon folks. Thanks for joining us here at headquarters. Uh we've already recognized that many of you have begun to cover the story related to a shooting incident that took place in Pmpo Beach last night. Uh first of all, I'm going to give you some background behind the nature of that shooting just to make sure your stories are a little bit more clear about how this day encountered. And then second, um I want to make a point of interest here that over the last six years, we have advanced so much in our training in this organization. And despite how much violence we may encounter in this profession, it's always nice as an administrator as our training team get together internal affairs and look at these incidents and see that our people are doing precisely what we're training them to do. So let me go through the background. Uh this call came out about 9:30 last night. Uh the incident involved an individual and I'll share his name and content in a moment. An individual who's known to local police and that we've had encounters with him in the past. uh 911 call comes out that the neighbor or something along those lines is firing gunshots up into the ceiling and in through the windows in this residence. Our units get the call. We respond out to the site location within about four minutes. Within that four minutes, we start going through an assessment process. You can see the deputies are out on scene, but there's a moment of silence. There's no active shooting. They're unaware where the suspect is. And so, they're working their way to contact. They're trying to discover the site location or where the shooter's at. During that time, you'll see when we play the video off for you, uh, one of our officers was working his light system on one of his handguns and it created a flickering effect. This is common. It's an error that happens if you just hit the light or your process of moving around. Well, that light gave away the signature or where the officer was located. And at that time, the suspect opened fired from a concealed position of cover of roughly 20 plus rounds. Fortunately, our deputies were not engaged and hit. U, you'll see the shift in positioning. The officers move to cover. They start making um verbal commands and orders for the suspect to come out, surrender, give himself up, but instead more gunfire exchanged. Um so we'll talk about the details behind that. The shooter or suspect at this point is a Scott Simelli. He's 52 years of age. Um he is local in terms of been to Pompo Beach. We've had encounters with him in the past related to Baker Acts and other instability issues and threats of violence within the community. So, he was known to us and that was actually an important factor in this call. Uh, one of our deputies who was not on scene as a call was coming out and were dispersing other officers out to the scene got on the radio and informed his colleagues that, hey, I've been out with this guy. He's violent. He has firearms, so be prepared. And that preparation actually is what saved lives today. Our deputies deployed their rifles. They took tactical protocols into place, and they worked as a cohesive unit. Uh at this point in time, two of our deputies were actually involved in terms of returning fire, but collectively four officers were engaged in terms of what the suspect tried to shoot tried to shoot them. Now, as we play this video and you see this, one of the things I'm very uh impressed with is the fact that two of these deputies are extremely junior in a sense that we just hired them. Uh one's been with us for about three years. Um we had one veteran out there for 11 years. and one of our deputies who actually was fired upon. It was his birthday yesterday. Uh so thank God this didn't end in a tragic situation where we lost an officer uh at any time, but most certainly uh during his birthday period. Um so if you look at what's occurring, we're going to start playing a video in just a moment and then I'll start taking more specific questions. So we'll air this out. You're going to see different perspectives from the body warn camera. The first video you'll see um is one deputy, the second video is another, the third, and then the fourth. Uh, and then I'll just kind of outline and fill in the blanks as we go. So, let's start the video and then it'll probably create more questions and comments to be made. Where? Where? We're going. We're on fire. My floor's on fire. Where? I can't. Joe, back up. Joe, back up. There he is. Sitting on the ground. Hey, drop it. [Music] He's down. He's down. He's down. He's down. He's down. Hey, drop. Can you see Joe? Joe, can you see? Hey, we're going to have to push up. Hold up. Hey, drop the gun now. We're going to push up. We're going to push up. Let's go. Let's go. Show me your hand. Hey, let me see hands. Let me see your hands. Hey, somebody glove up. Somebody glove up. Somebody glove up. Got it. Come on. Let's go. We got it. We got it. Where? You got first light. [ __ ] Huh? Huh? Hey, drop it. Drop it. Hey, drop the gun. You see, Joe? No. He's behind the trash can. Hey, we're going to have to push. Hold up. Hey, drop. Drop the gun now. We're going to push up. We're going to push up. Let's go. Let's go. Show me your hands. Hey, hands. Let me see your hands. Hey, somebody glove up. Somebody glove up. Come on. Let's go. We got it. We got it. Hey. All right. All right. Where are you hit? We're going to patch you up. Somebody glove up and take gun. Hey, check the victim upstairs. Upstairs. Upstairs. Apartment two. Quick, go. Down. Down. Somebody go. Somebody got a light. I got you. I got you. Go. Got to Somebody got a med kit. Can somebody hear me? I'm covered in blood here. Open up. I know you are. Hey Lub talking about that. Hey Joseph, I need one more. Those are tactical medical qu um kits that we purchase for every single deputy for self- aid or the application of individuals that may be engaged with or towards us or suffer some type of injury. So collectively, as you can see, you're getting a little bit more added insight uh beyond the surveillance video that was released or discovered. And at that point in time, I'll just pause, take some questions. So, most of this stuff is kind of self-explanatory at this point. So, he's not dead. No, he survived. I believe he was struck about three times or so. Uh, fortunately, the the deputies had enough professionalism and composure to treat his injuries, uh, do those things that we're responsible for and get him to definitive care. So, PMPO Beach Fire Rescue was able to arrive on scene, uh, take over and get him over to the hospital system where he survived. I can't speak in terms of credentials that he have, but we are aware of some of the posts that he's had online and the deputies who've encountered him in the past. He made such comments that he's been interested in firearms. So again, we weren't uh totally u uninformed in terms of the type of person we were dealing with. And thank God that we had one encounter because this could have easily have been a very tragic ambush situation where perhaps the individual kills deputies and continue to push into the community or go upstairs and kill these innocent folks that was occupying the residence. Uh when I was out on the scene last night, I got a chance to see the family members uh who was the target of this particular act of violence before we were um you know threatened and shot at and there was two children I believe two women and one adult male in that household. So as you can imagine what were they going to do to defeat someone out here with an assault rifle. It it sounds like there's been altercations in the past with this individual um making complaints that babies are crying too loud. In my opinion, regardless of what drove the act to occur, it doesn't justify that level of violence. You're shooting into someone's home. You're plotting and planning to execute and kill officers out in the scene. So, regardless of what the circumstances was that drove behind the factor, I'm happy we got him off the street. From what I've come to understand with our investigators is that there was an attempt to shoot through the roof, firing inside of his own residence. And when that was non-effective, whether it hit concrete, wood, all those things stands be discovered later, he decided to shoot through the windows. And this is where more of the reports or shots fires was coming from the family. Uh even the shot spotter system had alerted that there was active gunfire occurring in that environment. So when our deputies got on scene, it was already known one that we had a caller who was a victim and confirming that someone had fired. Second, we had the shot spotter system would alert it and we all can hear that on our phone, these shots active and live. Uh when I got on scene, I I witnessed or listened to that and it sound like something that was going on in another country, right? As you can hear the exchange of rounds. So between the the totality of calls coming in, shot spotter, it was clear that somebody was out here with a rifle. From what we can account, we had two fire in and exchange, what you're seeing is a rifle and positioning. The officers are trying to get an opportunity to shoot effectively without harming themselves or shooting rounds that scatter out and hit to the community. So, the two-point officers that had the best clean sight was the ones you see in uh putting down exchanging gunfire from the one he had on scene. Yes, the rifle platform was seized. I'm not sure if we able to um collect any other firearms at this time in terms of searching the house and everything else. Phil, if you have anything that you willing to share right now that doesn't compromise your investigation, that's fine. Yeah, from my understanding, he's going to survive his injuries and and he ought to thank God for that. Uh quite frankly, anyone who's going to shoot at all officers and fire a multitude of rounds, our focal point is putting them down permanently, not getting them to the hospital. But when they do survive, we have enough professionalism in us and understand that we have to be better than those individuals and that we have to provide the necessary care so that they can survive. Yes, he was Baker Act one time, I believe back in November of last year, uh when officers came out and encounter exhibiting erratic behaviors, etc. So to get them off the streets. Look, they're in administrative leave right now. That's part of our protocols. because I got a chance to go out to the scene and talk to every single one of them, even the ones who uh didn't get a chance to engage or or return fire, they're doing exceptionally well. Uh I think the training that we continue to invest in and now with the new training center that we have, it's only going to get better. It's only going to make them more effective. Uh I can see things from a tactical component and how they respond uh responded that we weren't doing precisely well when I first accepted command of this administration. And so kudos to our tactical training unit uh who have invested a lot of time in building up the skill set of the lowest common denominator of any deputy. Our tactical training unit was something that we created back in 2019. Whereas now our SWAT team is training um our officers on the tactical movements and engagement protocols and that's saving their lives and that's saving the community. That's saving your life as taxpayers in this comm in this county. I believe all just the two will be on admin leave, but at the same time, we're going to make sure that we take care of the other deputies. If they need time to decompress and take time off, they'll be afforded to have that. Uh we haven't had anything that was reported stolen at this time, if that's your question. Uh so perhaps he purchased them, some maybe belong to family members, whatever that is, we haven't had anything reported that it was stolen. Um you mentioned earlier that you got intel uh from social media that he was a gun enthusiast and said he was an instructor and all those things. He says he's an instructor, right? So, the probability is most of the firearms was purchased, but at the same time, I think this is a reminder to our community. Um, how many guns do you really need? Does everyone need to be running around out here with rifles? Right? These are bigger legislator comments beyond the office of the sheriff. This is Congress. This is federal. This is state. Uh, but we continue to see the type of involvements, engagements that we're having in our community here in Broward County. It's rifle. It's rifle. It's rifle. We conducted a high-risisk operation just a few months ago in Pomp led up through Major Elwood who's off to my right as the district commander. We in that operation we arrested 132 people and took 38 firearms off the street and multiple weapons of high power rifles during that incident. So it's systemic of what we're facing not just in Pompo but here in Broward County. every single possible criminal charge that we can apply from assault to attempted murder on a law enforcement off attempted murder on innocent civilians. We're gonna do everything we can possibly do legally and justifiably to keep him in prison for the rest of his life. You know, I'm pretty good on my feet. I think he got me stumped on that. What would I say to him if I ran into him yesterday? Well, hopefully if I ran into him yesterday, he wouldn't have a gun in his hand because I probably would have shot him myself. So, if those antics was occurring yesterday, I would have responded the same way that my deputies did from a warning approach. Comply by the laws because we're here to enforce the laws and we're going to protect this community with nonp prejudice or bias. I don't care about your backgrounds, where you're from, your demographics, your political affiliations, your sexual orientation, your gender. None of those things matter to us. We're going to respond and serve this community and serve it consistently and professionally. I don't know the accurate account. If Phil you have it, that's fine. But we're still, remember, this just happened a few hours ago. There may be other protocols and I don't want to get ahead of the investigation that we may have to do search warrant components. We may have to start um getting, you know, the court systems involved to give us greater authority. What I would tell this community is one, we are going to continue to respond effectively in how we receive these calls and 911 services for the threats in this community who think it's okay in sport to carry assault rifles and shoot up the communities and go out against people who can't defend themselves. That's what we're here for. And if someone's going to bring a gunfight into this community, we're going to win every damn one of them.