4 Deputies Who Fatally Shot Suspect 11 Times Cleared: Report

BLOOMINGDALE — RIVERVIEW, FL — Four Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies were justified using deadly force against 27-year-old Dylan Ray Scott during a December standoff in Riverview, the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office said.

Officers walked to Scott's truck in a McDonald's parking lot the night of Dec. 8 to speak to him about multiple arrest warrants he had, according to investigators. Scott drove away before officers could speak to him and crashed his truck into a vehicle on Bloomingdale Avenue. Deputies tried to take him into custody after the crash, but Scott refused to get out of his truck.

According to the state attorney's office, in an interview with Scott's ex-girlfriend, who was in the truck with him before the shooting occurred, she said prior to the incident that Scott told her that law enforcement officers would have to kill him before he went back to jail. Authorities were able to get the ex-girlfriend out of the truck after the crash.

Investigators said that Scott also sent Facebook messages to his mother that said, "Well, I'm not gonna be around much longer, Mom. I'm not letting them take me to prison. I got something that will give them no choice but to shoot me..."

The message to his mom occurred after Scott and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office had an encounter on July 27. According to investigators, he ran from police as they tried to arrest him for an active warrant.

On the night Scott was killed, investigators said deputies spent several minutes ordering him to show his hands in an attempt to calm the situation. Scott told deputies twice that he was armed, according to officials. Scott quickly raised his arm toward a deputy as if he was going to shoot him, and the deputies shot him 11 times in his head, shoulder, chest and the left side of his body, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office said.

Deputies never saw a gun during the incident, the state attorney's office said. A search revealed that there was not a gun on Scott's person or in his vehicle.

The deputies reasonably believed, based upon Scott’s actions and words, that he possessed a firearm, according to the review. Therefore, when Scott quickly raised his arm toward a deputy as if he was going to shoot him, the deputies reasonably perceived an imminent threat, which justified their use of deadly force, the State Attorney's Office said.

The officers did have body-worn cameras that recorded the event, and the video was shared with the public by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

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