The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is investigating a deputy-involved shooting involving three Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies.
At 12:42 a.m. on July 24, 2022, the HCSO Communications Bureau received a call in reference to shots fired at the Bristol Bay Apartments, located at 4709 Bristol Bay Way in Tampa. Upon arrival, deputies learned that two men had engaged in a verbal and physical confrontation at a party over a female earlier in the night. The confrontation moved outside where the suspect, Jonathan Huertas Reyes, 32, shot at the other male involved multiple times. No one was injured.
Deputies made contact with Huertas Reyes, and while attempting to engage in conversation with him, noticed he had a fanny pack on him. He ignored deputies' attempts to speak with them and led them on a brief foot chase through the apartment complex. In an attempt to get Huertas Reyes to obey commands to stop, a deputy took out his agency-issued taser. When Huertas Reyes observed the taser, he pulled out a firearm and pointed it at his own head.
Onlookers who saw the suspect with the gun began shouting at Huertas Reyes in Spanish and English to put down his weapon. A bilingual deputy, who was called to the scene, began speaking with Huertas Reyes on the phone while standing at a distance from him, attempting to encourage him to walk toward them without his gun in hand. Huertas Reyes repeatedly made threats to harm himself, suggesting that he would be going to jail for the shooting that had taken place earlier.
Huertas Reyes put his firearm on the ground during the dialogue, but he refused to come toward deputies. He eventually picked the firearm back up, forcing deputies to fire their service weapons toward him in fear of their lives and the lives of onlookers nearby. Deputies deployed immediate lifesaving efforts, including using an AED on Huertas Reyes. He was transported to Tampa General Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
The three deputies involved are Sergeant Benjamin Kenney (21 years of service), Deputy Nicholas Scudder (seven years of service), and Deputy Jeff Louis (one year of service). None of the deputies involved have any prior uses of deadly force.
As FDLE investigates the incident, the deputies involved will be placed on administrative leave.
Body-worn camera video of the incident can be viewed here.
