By Josh Fiallo
Tampa Bay Times
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — If Officer Pavel Kuznetsov had pulled his head to the left instead of the right while scuffling with an armed man, the sheriff said, he would have been shot in the head on Saturday.
Kuznetsov and fellow St. Petersburg police Officer Ronald McKenzie were fortunate they weren’t seriously injured or worse during a violent confrontation with a man accused of violating a stalking injunction, said Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
The man they were trying to arrest was 23-year-old Austin Kingos, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. McKenzie fired at Kingos and wounded him in the left leg, the sheriff said. The armed and wounded man tried to run away and had to be chased down by the officers.
He was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries and that night was booked into the Pinellas County jail.
“Officer Kuznetsov literally heard the round whiz by the side of his head,” Gualtieri said.
”Based on that angle, based upon the statements, based upon the physical evidence,” the sheriff said the bullet likely missed the officer’s skull “by less than an inch.”
Gualtieri compared Saturday’s incident to the situation involving Daytona Beach police Officer Jason Raynor, who was shot in the head earlier this week. The man wanted in that shooting was captured early Saturday in Georgia and the officer remains in critical condition.
The St. Petersburg shooting took place outside Kingos’ residence at 10795 Fourth Street N near Gandy Boulevard about 3:30 p.m.
McKenzie approached Kingos while he was in his van to arrest him on a charge of violating a stalking injunction that the Sheriff’s Office said was filed against him by his former girlfriend. McKenzie approached the vehicle and asked Kingos for identification, the sheriff said, but KIngos became “fidgety.”
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The officer tried to subdue him. Kingos threw his legs out of the van and tried to run away. The sheriff said McKenzie continued to wrestle with Kingos as another officer, Kuznetsov, came to help with the arrest.
During the struggle, Gualtieri said Kingos pulled a semiautomatic pistol from his waistband and fired one or two gunshots, causing Kuznetsov to shift his head.
The gunshot or gunshots missed both officers, Gualtieri said, and instead struck a nearby apartment building that was occupied. No one there was injured.
McKenzie drew his pistol and fired seven rounds at Kingos while he was still in the van, the sheriff said, striking him. But Kingos still managed to flee out the van’s passenger door and then run down the street.
Both officers ran after him. Finally, the sheriff said Kingos dropped his weapon and raised his arms at the intersection of 108th Avenue N and Fourth Street N. That’s when the officers realized he had been shot. McKenzie and Kuznetsov gave Kingos first aid until paramedics arrived to take him to a hospital. He is expected to survive.
The Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force is investigating the shooting and the actions of the St. Petersburg officers involved. The county’s law enforcement agencies no longer investigate their own officers in incidents in which they use force against someone. The task force was formed in 2020 by a consortium of agencies to take over those investigations.
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St. Petersburg police Chief Anthony Holloway did not discuss the investigation but offered his support to the officers involved in the incident.
“We’re very fortunate,” he said. “To hear the officers say that the round went past him, right over the shoulder, it really makes you think that these men and women put their lives on the line every day. Within an instant, they can lose their life.”
McKenzie has spent six years with the St. Petersburg Police Department and Kuznetsov has served for three years. Neither has been involved in a shooting incident before, Gualtieri said. Both have been placed on paid administrative leave.
Kingos had a minor criminal history before Saturday, the sheriff said. He now faces two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, battery on a law enforcement officer and misdemeanor charges of violation of an injunction for protection, violation of an injunction against repeated violence and resisting an officer. He is being held in jail without bail.
Gualtieri said he did now know how Kingos obtained the gun he used or if it was stolen, but said his former girlfriend had recently lodged several complaints against him. Investigators will obtain a search warrant to obtain the officer’s shell casings inside the van.
“We’re very thankful because this could be a very different discussion we could be having,” the sheriff said. “We’re thankful he didn’t take one to the head.”
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