MAN SHOT BY DEPUTY IN DRUG RAID DIES

After deputies entered the house, [Christopher Taylor] saw Walker lying on
a couch and said Walker rolled to the floor with his hands concealed in the
waistband of his pants.

Taylor, 33, ordered Walker to show his hands but Walker remained with his
back to the deputy and reached beneath the couch, searching for something
with his hands.

In May 2000, he shot at a shoplifting suspect fleeing the parking lot of a
Seminole Home Depot. After the suspect drove by and grabbed a female
suspect Taylor was holding, Taylor fired three shots, hitting the driver in
the temple and forearm. The man, later arrested, was treated and released
at a local hospital.

Full Text (817 words) Copyright Times Publishing Co. Apr 14, 2005 A
19-year-old man shot twice by a Pinellas sheriff's deputy during a drug
raid died of his injuries hours after the shooting, authorities said Wednesday.

Tuesday's shooting at a home on 16th Avenue S was defended by the Sheriff's
Office, which said Jarrell S. Walker refused to show his hands and searched
for something under a couch.

But Walker's family and others condemned the action, and said it evoked
last year's shooting of a St. Petersburg teenager, also African-American,
by deputies.

"They shot him in the back. It was unjustifiable," Walker's aunt,
Jacqueline Walker, said Wednesday afternoon outside the home at 3143 16th
Avenue S.

The shooting was at least the third in the six-year career of Cpl.
Christopher Taylor, who has been put on paid leave pending an
investigation. He was cleared of wrongdoing in previous cases.

An eight-member SWAT team and other deputies arrived at the house shortly
after 9 p.m. Tuesday. The number of officers was appropriate, the Sheriff's
Office said, because the house had been the subject of a drug investigation
by St. Petersburg police.

On March 15, St. Petersburg police serving an unrelated search warrant made
five arrests, recovered five guns and "fairly large" amounts of cocaine and
marijuana, Police Department spokesman Bill Proffitt said. Walker was not
present at the time.

Here's how Tuesday's shooting occurred, according to the Sheriff's Office:

After deputies entered the house, Taylor saw Walker lying on a couch and
said Walker rolled to the floor with his hands concealed in the waistband
of his pants.

Taylor, 33, ordered Walker to show his hands but Walker remained with his
back to the deputy and reached beneath the couch, searching for something
with his hands.

"At that point, Cpl. Taylor fired two shots from his department issued
.45-caliber handgun striking Walker in the back," a news release stated.

Sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen later clarified that description, saying
the bullets penetrated Walker's upper left shoulder area and traveled
laterally toward the right side of his body in a downward direction.

Deputies say they found a loaded 9mm handgun under a pillow on another
couch a few steps from Walker. They did not find a weapon under the couch
where he was said to be searching.

"You need to look at the total circumstances," McMullen said.

Two men were arrested during the raid: Dorian T. Williams, 30, on a charge
of felony possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and Terrell D.
Coley, 21, on a charge of misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

The Sheriff's Office said it recovered 91 grams of marijuana, 7.5 grams of
powder cocaine and 39.5 grams of crack cocaine, along with a police scanner
and cash.

Walker's family said he was not involved. They said the teenager was asleep
on the couch when deputies entered the house and awoke startled and unarmed.

"He was murdered by the sheriff's department," Jacqueline Walker said.

Records show Jarrell Walker had been previously arrested on charges of
grand theft auto and cocaine possession with intent to sell. The drug
arrest came April 7, records indicate.

Still, his aunt said he was turning his life around. She said Walker had
recently obtained his high school diploma after taking a GED test and
planned to go to welding school, with the hope of starting his own
business. He doted on his 3-year-old son, Kamau, who was at the house
during the shooting.

The family's cause has been taken up by the International People's
Democratic Uhuru Movement, which plans a 10 a.m. news conference today.

The group compared Tuesday's shooting to the fatal shooting last May of
Marquell McCullough, the 17-year-old who deputies say tried to run them
over off 34th Street N, and the 1996 shooting of TyRon Lewis, which sparked
two nights of civil disturbances.

Taylor was hired as a deputy in October 1998. In the years since, he has
been involved in at least two other shootings.

In May 2000, he shot at a shoplifting suspect fleeing the parking lot of a
Seminole Home Depot. After the suspect drove by and grabbed a female
suspect Taylor was holding, Taylor fired three shots, hitting the driver in
the temple and forearm. The man, later arrested, was treated and released
at a local hospital.

In April 2004, Taylor was one of two deputies who shot at the driver of a
utility truck who trapped a sheriff's cruiser under a boat trailer after
failing to pull over. The cruiser was dragged more than 10 blocks. The
driver was hit by a bullet once in the side.

In both cases, Taylor was cleared of wrongdoing. His personnel file, the
Sheriff's Office noted Wednesday, includes letters of commendation; he has
been awarded a combat cross for taking fire during a similar "high risk
narcotics search warrant."