Death by Cop 2021-2025
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Samuel Kirk
Age : 26
Gender : Male
Race : Unknown
Date : 08/26/2021
Location : Riverview Avenue and Narcissus Avenue
City : Sanford
County : Seminole
State : Florida
Agency : Seminole County Sheriff's Office
Officer(s) :Not Disclosed
Cause of Death : Gunshot
Event : Killed by police during domestic disturbance call
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
On 08/26/2021, at approximately 2:05 a.m., two Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the 400 block of Riverview Avenue in unincorporated Sanford after a neighbor called 911 reporting a physical altercation between a man and woman and hearing the woman crying for help. When deputies arrived, they initially could not determine which residence was involved because both people had left the immediate area.
Deputies began contacting residents to identify where the disturbance had occurred. Their investigation led them to the home of 26-year-old Samuel Thomas Kirk. As deputies approached the residence and attempted to make contact at the front door, Kirk came out from the carport area carrying a handgun. Body-camera footage recorded the encounter.
According to Sheriff Dennis Lemma, deputies repeatedly ordered Kirk to put the handgun down. Police alleged that Kirk pointed the gun toward the deputies and fired one round. The two deputies returned fire, collectively firing approximately 15 rounds. Kirk was struck five times.
After Kirk was shot, deputies provided emergency medical treatment until fire-rescue personnel arrived. Kirk was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Sheriff’s Office publicly released body-camera footage from the encounter, including a slow-motion recording of the exchange of gunfire.
Investigators subsequently located and interviewed the woman involved in the original disturbance. She told detectives that she and Kirk had been drinking at a downtown Sanford bar and that she followed him home to make sure he arrived safely. She alleged that an argument developed outside the residence and that Kirk threw her to the ground, slammed her against the concrete and choked her before she escaped in her vehicle. She declined medical treatment.
Kirk was described by the sheriff as believed to be a Marine veteran. Both deputies who killed Kirk had been hired by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office less than two years before the shooting. They were placed on administrative leave following the killing.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted the independent investigation into the fatal police shooting. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office did not identify the two shooting deputies in its initial public release.
