By Joanna Putman
Police1
SARASOTA, Fla. — Body camera footage shows officers pursue a bank robbery suspect whose vehicle ended up partially submerged in a pond, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.
Officers were working on Feb. 29 to apprehend William Pickett, 54, who was a suspect in a Feb. 24 bank robbery, according to the report. Body camera footage from the incident, released March 1, shows a Sarasota Police Department officer in pursuit of Pickett, who was fleeing in a white car.
Video shows the officer radioing that he is going to perform a PIT maneuver. Sounds of impact and the suspect vehicle losing control can be heard, though the camera angle does not show the maneuver being performed.
After the officer stopped the patrol car and started to get out, he told dispatchers that the vehicle reversed out into the pond. Body camera footage shows the white car submerged in water to the top of the wheels in the wetlands area.
“He’s reaching down into his jacket … he’s got a gun to his head,” the officer can be heard saying as he takes cover behind brush and draws his service weapon. Other officers can be heard urging Pickett not to shoot.
As the officer began to back away and give traffic instructions to other officers at the scene, multiple shots can be heard. The suspect was killed at some point during the officer-involved shooting, according to a FOX 13 report.
The Sarasota Police Department released body camera footage of the incident from all five officers who were at the scene, all of whom are on leave pending a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, according to the report. Due to the officers’ positions behind trees and brush, none of the body camera footage clearly shows what Pickett was doing inside the car.