HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office released video of an assault that sent a detention deputy to the hospital and shows an inmate fighting the deputy for nearly four minutes before help arrives.
Sheriff Chad Chronister wasn't available Thursday night to answer questions after he released the video late that afternoon. But earlier in the week, he said releasing the video during the suspect’s court appearance would've put other deputies at risk.
State Attorney Suzy Lopez argued for the video to be played in court hearings over the past week but was stopped by attorneys for HCSO. On Tuesday, a judge denied a motion by those attorneys to prevent the video from being played at a court hearing. On Thursday, the sheriff's office sent the video to media outlets.
“I believe in full transparency and good or bad, it's going out,” Chronister said earlier this week. “The problem is there's some security issues. There's TVs in the jail. They're streaming into jail. I don't need another inmate in the jail saying, ‘Oh, that's how he did it. Okay, we can do it too.’ That's the only reason.”
On Oct. 19, a deputy goes up to an inmate investigators say is Raheem Fulton, currently in jail on a felony gun charge from earlier this year. As the deputy tries to detain him over alleged contraband in the pod, they say Fulton punched him in the face and wrestled the deputy to the ground.
They continued fighting for over three minutes before they were broken up by a few inmates. Then, the deputy uses pepper spray to get Fulton down before backup finally arrives.
Corrections experts say radios normally have emergency buttons officers press when they need backup. It's not clear if the deputy had one and if it was working. A detective in a court hearing this week testified that the radio also fell off the deputy during the fight.
“My number one question would be, ‘Why did it take so long for assistance to come to that deputy sheriff?’” says law enforcement consultant and former Nassau County, New York county jail administrator Charles Campisi.
As detectives investigate what happened, several factors could be at play.
“It depends on staffing,” says Ron Martinelli, law enforcement master trainer and consultant. “It depends on the architecture of the facility, whether people in control rooms that are supposed to be monitoring these pods or paying attention and not being distracted.”
Prosecutors say Fulton broke the deputy's eye socket.
“I'm sure the other officers are very upset that he was injured and they weren't able to get to him quick enough,” Campisi says. “But somebody didn't get there quick enough.”
10 Tampa Bay asked the sheriff's office about the investigation into the fight but hasn't been told if there were equipment malfunctions or a lapse in oversight.
Fulton faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on the aggravated battery charge.