Orlando cop who shot knife-wielding man at bus station won’t face charges

The Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office declined to file criminal charges against a Orlando police officer who shot a man armed with a knife outside a Greyhound bus station last year, according to a letter prosecutors sent to Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolón.

Orlando police Lt. Matthew Ring and Sgt. Philip Clough were called to the bus station on John Young Parkway after a man, later identified as Matthew Hudak, was seen cutting himself with a pocket knife, wrote Assistant State Attorney Linda Duane Burdick, who reviewed Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the shooting.

Ring and Clough confronted Hudak at gunpoint, telling him to drop the knife but Hudak lunged at them, the probe found.

Officer Danielle Torres arrived on scene and took out her Taser while Ring, who was closer to Hudak, told her to use it, Burdick wrote.

“As Hudak started to run behind a car and toward the entrance to the Greyhound station, Officer Torres discharged his Taser,” Burdick wrote. “Nearly simultaneously, Lt. Ring discharged his firearm twice.”

The Taser prongs and a gunshot hit Hudak, who survived his injuries and was later taken into custody under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows for people considered a danger to themselves or others to be held involuntarily for an evaluation period. No officers were hurt.

A witness told Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators he believed Hudak would’ve hurt someone if he got inside the bus station.

Ring declined through his attorney to talk with FDLE investigators, Burdick wrote. Torres said she deployed her Taser because she was concerned Hudak may hurt someone or take hostages.

Burdick concluded that, though his refusal to testify left it unclear why Ring fired his gun, witnesses, the body-worn camera footage that captured the shooting and other evidence showed Ring’s use of force was “reasonable in light of the actions of Mr. Hudak.”

Hudak admitted to investigators that he lunged at the officers, Burdick wrote.

“When asked if he wanted the police to shoot him, he replied ‘I don’t know,’ ” Burdick wrote.

While Hudak did not face criminal charges in the incident, he was arrested in November in another case in which Orlando police said he “ran at” an officer with a knife after he was seen puncturing car tires outside a Bank of America in College Park.

This time, officers subdued Hudak by using Tasers. He was arrested on charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement and resisting arrest with violence and remains at the Orange County Jail.