Incompetence and Unnecessary Deadly Actions by Sheriff
Mr. C.T. Bowen
Editor of Editorials
Letter-to-the-Editor
St. Petersburg Times
Hernando/Pasco Times
Brooksville, Florida
Dear Mr. Bowen:
Regarding “Adrift and Sinking, Three Men Saved,” St. Petersburg Times, December 24, 2009, by Emily Nipps, Wilmath and Stanley. If the US Coast Guard’s rescue of the three fishermen is called a “textbook case,” why would the Hernando County Sheriff’s Internal Affairs Department clear its’ helicopter pursuit of a fugitive on a lake in September, resulting in his drowning, of any wrongdoing?
Eyewitnesses saw the Hernando County Sheriff’s helicopter hover three feet above the water and six feet from the fugitive kayaker, with the rotors blowing his hat off, and the pilot admitted the propeller winds could have flipped the fugitive’s 8 foot kayak into the air! The eyewitnesses also saw the copter churn up the water as the fugitive surfaced twice then disappeared in a shallow lake.
Ms. Nipps’ article in the St. Petersburg Times recently, on the Coast Guard rescue in the Gulf, stated that the [32-foot] boat had sunk so low that “getting close with the helicopter might kick up waves that could pitch the men into the sea.”
Instead, the reporter wrote, a rescue swimmer was lowered into the water by the U.S. Coast Guard “to take the men away from the boat,” where they were hauled up to the helicopter one by one in a basket.
Conclusion: the Hernando County Sheriff’s Department unnecessarily killed the fleeing fugitive. A simple motor boat pursuit, or wait for him to row his kayak off the lake, would have easily saved the person’s life and the sheriff department’s extreme embarrassment over its incompetence and unnecessary deadly actions.
Brian P. Moore
Spring Hill, Florida
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