McElroy letter to WFLA-TV management From: Laura McElroy [mailto:Laura.McElroy@tampagov.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2014 6:40 PM To: Stacy, Melissa; Berra, William M. Subject: The Rest of the Story!
Bill and Melissa, Welcome to the Bill Berra ranks Melissa! I spent a few years there myself as a reporter before I went to the dark side! I am very familiar with the Bill Berra tidal wave and I can tell you it’s much less pleasant on this side of it! I don’t expect to like every story done on our agency, but I always hope to have our position fairly represented. I’d like to set the record straight on the Turk shooting. Turk’s wife called 911 concerned her husband may commit suicide. She said on the 911 call that he may not have the nerve to take his own life. She went on to say that her husband told her if he didn’t have the nerve, he could point his gun at police to commit suicide by cop. Dispatch learned from the wife that Turk was in a back bedroom of his house. Eight officers responded to the scene, not 19 as your station has reported several times. All eight of them have completed courses on dealing with the mentally ill. This fact has also been omitted. More officers arrived after the shooting took place. As you are both aware, the department and the state attorney investigate all officer involved shootings so there would be a large number of officers arriving after the incident. When the initial officers arrived, they anticipated Turk would be inside the home. They spotted someone sitting inside a car and began trying to speak with him and asking him to leave the area for his safety. They were attempting to clear the area for the safety of the public before making contact with the armed and possibly suicidal person. Turk was unresponsive. Then officer Bergman spotted the gun and realized they were dealing with Turk. He notified the officers at the scene so they could all take cover. Since officer Bergman was closest to Turk, the sergeant directed him to try and “talk him out of it.” Turk ignored the officer’s attempts and raised his gun instead. At this moment, this call changed from a possible suicidal person to a deadly force situation. Turk threatened the lives of the officers. No amount of training would have changed the outcome because there was absolutely no time to call upon that training. Within seconds, Turk pointed the gun. If we sent Sigmund Freud, the outcome would have been the same. Turk wanted to commit suicide by cop. Thankfully, he survived the incident. I’ve included a portion of the videotaped message that Turk sent his wife the night of this incident. It clearly shows he was intending to die that night. When the officer informed Turk’s wife at the hospital what happened, she said that she knew this would happen-this was his plan to make the police shoot him. She repeated this several times to the officer. Below is relevant text from the investigation of the shooting. I’ve also attached a letter from the state attorney. I’ve worked here 10 years and I’ve never seen a letter like this. My experience is attorney’s like to find fault with officer’s actions.
It is not plausible for an officer to take a wait and see approach when an armed individual is threatening his life and the lives of fellow officers and this is clearly established in the case law. The recent stories disregard this fact. I hope you will take these details into consideration. Thanks for your time, Laura