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Josue Arias

Age : 32

Gender : Male

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 09/07/2021

Location : 2175 Indigo Drive

City : Clearwater

County : Pinellas

State : Florida

Agency : Pinellas County Sheriff's Office

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during hostage situation

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 09/07/2021, four Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputies shot and killed 32-year-old Josue Arias outside a home at 2175 Indigo Drive in the Greenbriar neighborhood of unincorporated Clearwater. The encounter began at approximately 3:38 a.m. when a woman called 911 and reported that her former boyfriend, Arias, was outside her home with a handgun.
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Police said Arias entered the residence before deputies arrived. The woman and her current boyfriend retreated into separate rooms. Authorities alleged Arias threatened the residents and made statements indicating that he intended violence. The woman was armed with her own handgun and eventually escaped from the house; police said she immediately put her weapon down when she encountered deputies.
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The woman left her cellphone inside the residence with the 911 connection still open. This allowed dispatchers and police to continue hearing what was occurring inside. Clearwater Police Chief Daniel Slaughter later said deputies stopped calling commands into the residence after realizing that their commands appeared to be agitating Arias.
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Arias later appeared at the front door with the woman's boyfriend and allegedly held a handgun to the man's head. Police said Arias subsequently released him, allowing the man to escape, and Arias retreated into the residence.
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Police said Arias made statements during the barricade that he was not returning to prison, that his life was over and that he was going to die. Deputies attempted to negotiate with him.
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Arias eventually came out of the house again carrying the handgun. According to the official account, he moved around the patio and then entered the yard while apparently looking toward deputies' positions. Four Pinellas County deputies opened fire and killed him. Contemporary reporting did not establish that Arias fired at deputies before they shot him.
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The entire police operation lasted more than an hour. Clearwater police participated at the scene, but the fatal gunfire came from Pinellas County sheriff's deputies.
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The Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Task Force investigated the shooting. On 09/24/2021, the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney's Office announced that its review was complete and determined that the four deputies' use of deadly force constituted justifiable homicide. No deputies were criminally charged.
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The later prosecutorial finding is important because the initial account left unresolved whether Arias actually fired his handgun at police. The justification for the deputies' gunfire instead rested on the circumstances confronting them after Arias allegedly held a gun to a hostage's head, released the hostage, reemerged armed and moved through the yard while appearing to search for deputies' positions.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Four Pinellas County sheriff's deputies fired at Josue Arias. The reporting and later prosecutor coverage located for this update do not publicly identify the four shooters by name.
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AGENCY RECORD
The shooting was investigated through Pinellas County's Use of Deadly Force Task Force rather than solely through an internal sheriff's-office review. The task force investigation was subsequently reviewed by the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney's Office, which ruled the shooting justified approximately 17 days after Arias was killed.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.fox13news.com/news/shots-fired-reported-in-clearwater-neighborhood-deputies-say
https://www.fox13news.com/news/pinellas-deputies-justified-in-fatal-shooting-in-clearwater-neighborhood
https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/2021/09/27/pinellas-deputies-justified-in-fatal-shooting-of-armed-man-prosecutor-says/
https://www.tampabay28.com/news/region-pinellas/1-killed-in-deputy-involved-shooting-in-clearwater
https://www.wusf.org/courts-law/2021-09-07/pinellas-county-deputy-shooting-being-investigated