Death by Cop 2021-2025
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Paris Wilder
Age : 38
Gender : Male
Race : Black
Date : 08/30/2021
Location : West New Haven Avenue
City : West Melbourne
County : Brevard
State : Florida
Agency : Brevard County Sheriff's Office
Officer(s) :Brian Potters; Tyler Thoman
Cause of Death : Gunshot
Event : Killed by police during traffic stop
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
On 08/30/2021, shortly after 1:00 p.m., Brevard County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Potters conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle traveling on West New Haven Avenue/U.S. 192 just west of Interstate 95 in the West Melbourne area. Deputy Tyler Thoman arrived shortly afterward to assist. Three adults and a two-month-old infant were inside the vehicle. Thirty-eight-year-old Paris Wilder of Cocoa was sitting in the rear passenger seat.
Dash-camera video released by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office provides unusually extensive documentation of what happened next. While deputies spoke with the people in the vehicle, Potters offered to hold the infant while the adults got out. Wilder then emerged from the rear passenger side carrying a short-stock rifle and immediately began firing. Wilder shot Potters in the lower leg as Potters moved away from the vehicle. Both Potters and Thoman returned fire.
The exchange continued around the vehicles. Wilder was struck by police gunfire but remained mobile. According to the Sheriff’s Office and the released video, Wilder's rifle eventually malfunctioned or became unusable. Wilder then approached Potters from behind and repeatedly struck him in the head with the rifle while Potters was on or near the ground. Potters suffered a gunshot wound to his leg as well as head lacerations, a concussion and facial fractures.
Thoman moved toward Wilder and Potters during the struggle and fired multiple additional rounds at Wilder at close range. Wilder was struck and killed. Subsequent reporting specifically identified Thoman as the deputy who fired the final fatal gunfire, while both Thoman and Potters had fired during the preceding exchange.
The Sheriff’s Office alleged that Wilder had two outstanding felony warrants and was out on bond in two felony drug cases when the traffic stop occurred. Sheriff Wayne Ivey subsequently emphasized Wilder's extensive arrest history in public statements about the killing. Those allegations concerned Wilder's prior criminal history and were separate from the circumstances that initially caused Potters to stop the vehicle. Contemporary reporting did not establish that Potters initiated the traffic stop specifically to arrest Wilder on those warrants.
The Sheriff’s Office initially withheld the deputies' identities but subsequently identified them as Brian Potters and Tyler Thoman. Potters had joined the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in March 2020 after previously working for the Titusville Police Department and Fayette County Sheriff’s Office in Kentucky. Thoman had worked for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office since December 2018. Both deputies were placed on paid administrative leave following the fatal shooting.
The Sheriff’s Office released the dash-camera recording on 09/09/2021. The recording is important evidence in this case because it documents most of the confrontation rather than leaving the sequence dependent solely upon the deputies' subsequent statements.
A search of publicly indexed records and reporting for Potters and Thoman did not locate a documented prior fatal police shooting involving either deputy before Wilder's death. Potters later left law enforcement following injuries and became publicly involved in Brevard County politics. No reliable record located during this update established that either deputy was criminally charged or disciplined for the shooting of Wilder.
SOURCE LINKS :
https://www.brevardsheriff.com/home/nr-21-43-investigative-update-deputy-involved-shooting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M83pA-xzOM8
