Orlando officer won’t be charged
Kicked burglary suspect in the face, pulled hair during January arrest
An Orlando police officer who kicked a burglary suspect in the face and pulled his hair while trying to arrest him in January will not face any criminal charges, the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office determined after reviewing an investigation of his use of force.
Hilliker’s actions came under scrutiny about a month after the Jan. 14 incident, when the Orlando Police Department reviewed his use of force against burglary suspect Michael Von Bristol and determined it “needed further investigation,” the agency said at the time.
OPD said Chief Orlando Rolón requested a probe by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and opened an Internal Affairs investigation.
Hilliker, through an attorney, declined to be interviewed for FDLE’s probe, but gave his account in a field report filed after the incident. FDLE investigators also reviewed surveillance video and interviewed other officers.
Hilliker and two other officers apprehended Bristol, 48, at an auto repair shop in west Orlando, where they tracked him after he was accused of stealing a cellphone and $45 from a nearby unlocked apartment.
While searching the auto shop on Irene Street, a police dog alerted the officers that a person was inside a locked closet. In an interview with FDLE investigators, Sgt. Matthew Ring said he
“announced his presence with a canine, and that if the individual did not come out they would get bitten,” according to an FDLE summary of its investigation.
Ring said Hilliker tried to open the closet door with a knife, then began pulling on the handle.
The door “flew” open and hit Hilliker, “who stumbled backward in the hallway,” FDLE Special Agent David Hubbard wrote in the report.
Hilliker wrote in his field report that Bristol ran down the hallway toward him and he “was in fear that the suspect was going to attempt to batter/attack me,” so he “delivered a front kick with my right leg.”
Hilliker said Bristol fell forward during the kick, causing “my right foot to strike the suspect in his right chest/shoulder area and my shin [to] strike him in the right side of his face.”
Ring said he allowed his police dog to bite Bristol as Bristol ran at Hilliker, because he thought Bristol was going to attack him or push past him and out of the business, Hubbard wrote.
As the officers were handcuffing him, Bristol initially put
Hilliker wrote in his field report that Bristol ran down the hallway toward him and he “was in fear that the suspect was going to attempt to batter/attack me,” so he “delivered a front kick with my right leg.”
his hands behind his back, but then moved one hand underneath him, Officer Ryan Clarke told investigators. Clarke said he struck Bristol “a couple” times on the back to get him to comply.
While his hand was underneath him, Hilliker said grabbed Bristol by the hair because it was the only area he could grab “to gain control of him.”
Bristol was arrested on charges of burglary, resisting an officer without violence, theft, possession of drug paraphernalia, attempted dealing in stolen property and battery on a law enforcement officer. He has since been convicted of several charges and sentenced to more than three years in prison.