K-9 DEPUTY KILLS MAN IN BOTCHED DRUG BUST

PALM HARBOR - A Pinellas County K-9 deputy fatally shot a suspected drug
dealer Tuesday night after the suspect repeatedly refused to show his hands
and then lunged at the deputy and the deputy's dog in a thickly wooded area
off U.S. 19, sheriff's officials said.

The deputy, 20-year veteran Kenneth Kubler, is on routine administrative
leave pending investigations by the sheriff's office and the Pinellas-Pasco
State Attorney's Office. He had never been involved in a departmental shooting.

The suspected dealer, Dustin Dean, 21, of New Port Richey, was shot once in
the upper body. His criminal record includes no-contest pleas to possession
of marijuana with the intent to distribute, possession of drug
paraphernalia and possession of alprazolam, a tranquilizer.

The shooting occurred just before 10 p.m. in woods behind Sweet Tomatoes
restaurant in the 31100 block of U.S. 19, sheriff's spokesman Cal Dennie said.

About a half-hour earlier, in a parking lot outside Strokers Billiards,
which is just down the road, an undercover sheriff's narcotics deputy met
Dean and Dean's accused accomplice, Jonathan Whitlatch, 19, to buy cocaine,
sheriff's officials said.

When uniformed detectives converged to arrest the pair, the men bolted in
opposite directions, sheriff's officials said.

Whitlatch ran onto U.S. 19 but couldn't get any farther than the median
because of passing traffic. He then turned and lunged at a detective
chasing him, sheriff's documents state. Whitlatch fought deputies until he
was subdued and handcuffed. Two deputies were injured during the scuffle,
the documents state.

The Palm Harbor man was charged with resisting a law enforcement officer
with violence and trafficking in cocaine. The undercover detective said in
documents that Whitlatch had 55 grams of the drug on him. Whitlatch was at
the Pinellas County Jail on Wednesday with bail set at $60,000.

After Dean ran, he disappeared into woods along the same side of U.S. 19
where the drug transaction had taken place, Dennie said. He was heard in
the dense brush and was told he was surrounded, the spokesman said.

Kubler was on the sidewalk with his dog north of the wooded area when the
dog picked up a scent, sheriff's officials said. With his leashed dog
leading him, Kubler took a few steps into the woods and spotted someone,
sheriff's officials said.

That person began to stand up but didn't cooperate with Kubler, who was
yelling at him to show both hands, sheriff's officials said. Kubler saw
only one of the man's hands. Then the man, later identified as Dean, lunged
at Kubler, and Kubler shot him, sheriff's officials said.

Dean apparently was not armed.

Wednesday morning, workers sweeping parking lots found a backpack 75 to 100
yards away that contained a Tech 9 machine gun. Investigators say they are
trying to determine whether Dean or Whitlatch had stashed it in case the
drug deal went awry.