Officers won’t face criminal charges
3 cops shot, killed patient at Orlando Regional Medical Center last year
Three Orlando police officers who shot and killed a patient at Orlando Regional Medical Center last year will not face criminal charges, after their use of deadly force was deemed justified by Chief Assistant State Attorney Deborah Barra, who reviewed an investigation of the shooting.
Barra, in a Nov. 21 clearance letter to OPD Chief Orlando Rolón, wrote that it was “reasonable” for the officers “to believe their lives and the lives of others were in danger” after the patient, 33-year-old Brian Baker, repeatedly said he had a gun and refused commands to show his hands.
Baker did not have a weapon, OPD later discovered. However, during a roughly two-hour conversation with a crisis negotiator, Baker hid his hand inside his shirt and was in an “unpredictable mental state,” Barra wrote.
The decision not to charge the officers— Paul Evancoe, Elio Florin and Daniel Robertson— was based on Barra’s review of an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which probes all shootings by OPD officers.
Barra wrote that “[t]here were several patients and hospital staff located in rooms directly across the hall from Mr. Baker” and, when he refused to show his hands, instead moving toward officers with an object in his hand, “it would be reasonable and therefore justifiable for members of your agency to protect their own lives and the lives of the patients and staff located close by.”
The Oct. 1, 2018 shooting prompted a lockdown of the hospital after officers were called to the emergency room about 5:30 a.m., where Baker was making comments about having a gun,
OPD said that day.
As an OPD crisis negotiator began talking with Baker, Evancoe, Florin and Robertson positioned themselves nearby with guns drawn, but out of Baker’s sight, Barra wrote.
During the conversation, Baker showed “a wide range of emotions” and made comments about killing himself, according to the letter. Barra wrote that he “broke down crying several times” and was agitated or calm at other times.
After talking to another patient across the hall, Baker became upset and “began to pull hospital equipment towards him,” Barra wrote.
She said he refused commands by Florin and Robertson to show them his hands, then jumped up on hospital equipment and pulled his hand out from under his shirt.
“There was an object in his hand, and it appeared as if he was pointing the object towards [the officers],” Barra wrote.
Evancoe and Florin each fired one shot and Robertson fired two, she wrote. All four struck Baker. He died about 15 minutes later after “life saving measures were implemented,” the letter read.
Brian Baker’s father, Darren Baker, spoke at a Citizen’s Police Review Board meeting a month later, expressing concern that none of the three officers who fired shots captured the incident on body cameras.
OPD gave varying explanations for why officers failed to record the shooting: One officer was a K9 handler who was not issued camera; another was a SWAT team member and, when he put on gear over his regular uniform, his camera’s view was obstructed; the third officer had just come off a 12-hour shift and his camera battery was dead.
The agency has said other officers on scene did have body cameras and the hospital captured footage of the shooting. In the clearance letter, Barra said the FDLE investigation reviewed “sworn statements of the people present, ballistic evidence, video evidence and physical evidence at the scene.”
OPD has since outfitted all K9 and SWAT officers with cameras.
The agency has begun a separate internal investigation of the shooting, which will determine if the officers violated any department policies.