Search fatalities

Brian Underwood

Age : 47

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 08/28/2022

Location : 6000 block of Tarawa Drive

City : Sarasota

County : Sarasota

State : Florida

Agency : Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during domestic disturbance call

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/28/2022, two Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office deputies shot and killed 47-year-old Brian Underwood inside a home in the 6000 block of Tarawa Drive after deputies responded to a 911 call from his girlfriend reporting that Underwood had threatened her with a gun. Four deputies entered the house, and two opened fire after police alleged Underwood pulled a semiautomatic handgun from behind his back, chambered a round and raised the weapon toward them.
The 911 call was placed at approximately 9:06 a.m. Underwood’s girlfriend told the dispatcher that she and Underwood had argued the previous night and that she awoke that morning to Underwood holding a gun to her face. According to authorities, Underwood displayed the firearm again while she was still speaking with the 911 operator.
Deputies arrived within approximately five minutes. Underwood’s girlfriend barricaded herself in a bedroom and remained in communication with 911. Underwood’s mother was also initially inside the house but was able to leave. She left the front door open when she exited.
Rather than immediately entering, deputies attempted to persuade Underwood to come outside. He remained inside and communicated with them by telephone. Deputies could see him through a window and persuaded him to show his hands. According to Sheriff Kurt Hoffman, Underwood then told deputies they could enter the house to retrieve his girlfriend.
Four deputies entered through the open front door. Police said Underwood initially had his hands raised. According to the sheriff’s account, deputies were giving him commands when Underwood reached behind his back and produced a semiautomatic handgun from his waistband. Police alleged that he chambered a round and began raising the firearm toward the deputies. Two of the four deputies then fired, killing him.
The account that Underwood raised the firearm toward deputies comes from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. The publicly available sources located for this update do not contain body-camera footage or another independently recorded view of the shooting that would allow comparison with the officers’ account. The 911 recording provided additional evidence concerning the events preceding the deputies’ arrival, but it does not independently establish Underwood’s actions at the instant police fired.
Deputies had previously responded to the Tarawa Drive residence for reported family disturbances, although the sheriff’s office said those earlier calls did not result in arrests. The agency also reported that Underwood had a 2014 domestic-battery arrest in Citrus County.
The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office withheld the identities of all four deputies who entered the house, including the two who killed Underwood. The department classified the deputies as victims of an alleged aggravated assault and invoked Florida’s Marsy’s Law as the basis for withholding their names.
The timing is significant because this was the second fatal Sarasota County deputy shooting in ten days. On 08/18/2022, two Sarasota County deputies had shot and killed 29-year-old Tyler Casey Sweeney during an armed-burglary response after police alleged Sweeney struck another deputy with a machete. Sheriff Hoffman specifically referenced that earlier killing while discussing Underwood’s death.
The public record located for this update does not establish that the deputies who killed Underwood were the same deputies who killed Sweeney ten days earlier. Because Sarasota County withheld the shooters’ identities in the Underwood case, that possible overlap cannot be reliably determined from the available records.
.

OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Two of the four Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office deputies who entered the house fired the shots that killed Underwood. The agency withheld all four deputies’ identities under Marsy’s Law, preventing reliable identification of the shooters from the publicly available records located for this update.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/sarasotacounty/911-call-sarasota-deputies-shoot-kill-man/67-6b6dd042-ccc2-46ff-93e0-230229e2faf6
https://www.yoursun.com/venice/news/officer-involved-shooting-under-investigation-in-sarasota-911-call-released/article_4af766fa-26fb-11ed-9fd7-f3f4e85d0e01.html
https://www.mysuncoast.com/2022/08/28/deputies-investigate-officer-involved-shooting-sarasota-county/
https://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article265019344.html
https://www.fox13news.com/news/sarasota-county-sheriffs-office-investigates-officer-involved-shooting.amp
https://www.yourobserver.com/news/2022/aug/29/sarasota-deputies-fatally-shoot-man-who-pulled-a-gun/