Slush Pile: Avoid a ticket? Attack the officer

2008 Slush Pile

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Avoid a ticket? Attack the officer

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/treasurecoast/content/tcoast/epaper/2008/06/02/0602mcfatalshooting.html

Man killed at mall attacked deputy to shield sibling

By JILL TAYLOR and ANA X. CERON

Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Monday, June 02, 2008

JENSEN BEACH — His brother and friends tried to talk him out of it, but Miguel Pablo had been drinking and apparently thought he could spare his younger brother from a DUI arrest by fighting with a deputy in the parking lot of the Treasure Coast Square mall Sunday afternoon.

Pablo, 21, was shot dead in the struggle with deputy Jason Howard. Pablo's brother Francisco, 18, is charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer for allegedly kicking Howard after Miguel Pablo knocked him to the ground, arrest records say.

Howard, 27, is on administrative leave while the shooting is under investigation, but Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder said he believes the initial information supports Howard's decision to use deadly force.

"When you jump a deputy, you can expect to die," Crowder said. "If you attack a deputy who is armed, particularly when it's more than one person, the logical assumable result of that is that the deputy will be disarmed. And chances are he will then be executed by the people who disarmed him. I don't expect them (deputies) to take that chance."

Crowder said Howard would have been justified in shooting anyone who was involved in the attack. "He was on the ground being kicked when he finally resorted to defending himself," Crowder said Sunday night at the scene near the Sears store.

Pablo was hit from the front in the torso and the right arm with two shots from Howard's .45-caliber Smith and Wesson, according to sheriff's officials. Investigators found two more spent casings, indicating two shots missed.

Pablo's parents and girlfriend suggested Howard could have stopped him with a Taser or a nonlethal shot to his leg. "Why did they kill him?" Pablo's mother, Angelina Francisco, said. "He didn't have a gun, not even a knife."

Martin deputy Dennis Root, a Taser expert, said the Taser is considered a "low level" use of force and would be ineffective against multiple attackers.

Only one set of prongs can be fired at once, leaving the deputy open to attack by the second person, he said.

And when the decision is made to use deadly force, deputies are trained to shoot at the biggest target, the torso, with the goal of stopping the attacker in the shortest amount of time with the fewest shots, Root said.

"It's very difficult to hit a moving target. It's very difficult," he said. "We shoot to stop. ... Unfortunately, death can be a byproduct."

Howard, who previously did missionary work, has been a deputy just more than four years and has a good record with the department, with several commendation letters, good evaluations from supervisors and just two minor traffic accidents on his disciplinary record.

Pablo has a minor arrest record in Florida for driving on a suspended license and disorderly intoxication, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

A deputy who arrived at a call for a fight in Indiantown a year ago reported seeing Miguel Pablo drunk, staggering and yelling obscenities to people outside a birthday party where he had been trying to start a fight, court records show. He also "bowed up in an aggressive manner" at another deputy and had to be subdued before they could take him into custody for disorderly intoxication, records show.

Family gives other portrait

He lived in Indiantown with his brother and their parents. His father, also named Miguel Pablo, said the family doesn't understand why their son died.

Pablo, 60, says his son was a good kid, a calm boy who respected his parents and liked to play basketball near their Indiantown home.

Friends and family, who came to check on the Pablos at their home, took turns speaking softly to each other in a Mayan dialect and then sitting in silence, looking down at the floor.

At the sparsely decorated house, American and Guatemalan flags were pinned to a wall. White candles surrounded a picture of a young Miguel Pablo, smiling in a framed school picture.

"We're dying of sadness for them," Miguel Pablo said of his two sons.

Pablo said his sons would often go out on weekends to have fun with friends. He started worrying about them when he couldn't reach them by phone on Sunday. The family didn't know what had happened until one of their other sons got a call from Francisco Pablo. He was in jail, he said, and broke the news that his brother had been shot.

The Pablos say they don't know who else was with the brothers in the truck when the deputy pulled them over at the Treasure Coast Square mall parking lot.

Miguel Pablo worked at W&W Lumber, and his younger brother is still in school.

Workers at W&W Lumber described Miguel Pablo as a good worker who had been with the company about two years as a sales associate.

"He was an awesome guy, awesome to work with, a great employee," Alan Cooper, director of operations, said.

Idea came as group waited

It was Pablo's 2000 Ford F-150 truck his brother was driving when the initial stop was made at 5:26 p.m., records show.

Sheriff's officials said four men and a juvenile girl were in the truck.

Howard reportedly followed the truck north on U.S. 1 and suspected the driver was impaired. He stopped the truck at the mall and called for a traffic deputy to meet him to conduct a DUI investigation.

While they were waiting, Miguel Pablo came up with the idea of starting a fight to distract the deputy and allow his brother to run away and avoid arrest, records show.

Everyone else thought it was a bad idea, but Pablo got out of the truck and went after Howard, knocking him to the ground, records show.

Francisco Pablo said he got out of the truck and started kicking Howard while he was on the ground, according to arrest records.

About eight minutes after the initial stop, 911 lines began to light up with calls from people at the mall.

Francisco Pablo said he tried to pull his brother away and told him to run, but Miguel Pablo kept fighting.

Francisco Pablo told detectives he saw Howard point his gun at them and order them to get on the ground, records show. Then he heard shots.

Howard, who reportedly passed out after the shooting, was taken to Martin Memorial Medical Center for treatment and was later released.

As is the case with every fatal shooting involving a law enforcement officer, the state attorney's office will review the investigation and present it to a grand jury.

Detectives will check to see if the mall had a security camera taping of the incident, Crowder said.

Submitted on 06/03/2008

Submitted by: Ed Spenser
Reference: Palm Beach Post 6/3/2008

>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: No Self-Selection
Thanks, Ed, but we don't accept justified shootings by police. It's basically a case of self defense on the part of the officer.

Chip said:
Definitely Toss: Bystanders Hurt
Attacks on police, while stupid, are not Darwin material. Besides, we don't accept anything where the doofus injuries someone else as in this case. But we do thank you for the story.

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2008 Slush Pile

Avoid a ticket? Attack the officer

2008 Reader Submission Pending Acceptance

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance