Following an altercation at an Orlando hotel, a Florida deputy fatally shot an armed man whose sibling was nearby and bleeding to death. The incident was captured on video, which was made public last week. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office reported that the brothers, Bryan Matthew Richardson, 28, and Dylan Michael Jimenez, 21, perished as a result of the event.
The sheriff’s office on Friday revealed footage taken by officers’ body cameras as they responded to a shooting on August 6 at 12:30 pm outside the Orlando hotel, where they discovered Jimenez suffering from gunshot wounds. The video starts with a deputy speaking to a man who claims to be a paramedic who is tending to a wounded man who has been shot in the right side of his chest and is lying on the ground. The deputy can be heard in the video informing the paramedic that they’re going to treat the wounded man by putting a chest seal on him.
The deputy then directs the paramedic to put the injured guy on his back and expose his airway. The video then shows yells “he has a gun, he has a gun.” Someone shouting that the bearer of the gun is pointing it at people can also be heard. A second deputy then appears to wrestle with the man’s left hand as the deputy walks near the man and commands him to “drop the pistol.” The unnamed deputy can then be seen firing multiple shots at the close individual in the footage. Later, a pickup truck can be seen toppling next to the injured man.
Richardson and Jimenez were pronounced dead at a hospital, police have said. Officials claimed that Jimenez and Richardson got into a fight with a third man outside the motel before deputies arrived. After Jimenez and the third man, who was not named, exchanged gunfire, the brothers fled to the hotel’s north side, where Richardson was found dead, according to authorities. Authorities claimed that the man who is accused of shooting Richardson lived.
In the video’s introduction, Orange County Sheriff John Mina stated that his office is “dedicated to transparency and believes it is vital to maintaining accountability and strengthening confidence between our department and the public.” According to Mina, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will carry out an impartial investigation. According to Mina, the deputy who fired his firearm has been placed on paid administrative leave.
He joined the sheriff’s office in 2018, according to agency representatives. On Monday, no one from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was available for comment. The murdered brothers’ family’s attorney, Mark NeJame, praised Mina for publishing the footage “of his own volition.” The deputy who fatally shot Richardson, he claimed, “obviously used excessive force and overreacted.” NeJame claimed that witnesses claimed Richardson was defending his wounded brother and the people around Jimenez because a shooter was still free.
NeJame claimed Richardson was likely in shock because he had just seen his brother get shot. He continued by saying it’s unknown if the deputy in the video was aware Richardson was carrying a weapon prior to his fatal shooting. “Unnecessary use of violence against someone who had already been wronged — Bryan,” as NeJame put it, was the shooting.
