SWAT Leader: Man with AK-47 'Gave Us No Other Choice' But To Shoot

The incident that ended in police shooting Robert Kaminski, 62, to death started with a phone call from Kaminski’s wife to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 9.

Det. Michael Rosa, who is in the major crimes unit at the sheriff’s office, said she called the agency around 8 p.m. and told it that Kaminski was about an hour from her home.

“He had made comments that if she weren’t out, he would kill her,” Rosa said at a press conference Aug. 12. 

A deputy arrived at the mobile home at 9518 Marley Ave. in Moon Lake, where the wife was with her mother and a friend.

When Kaminski arrived, the deputy spoke to him. Kaminski was angry and wanted his wife out of the home, Rosa said. There was a gun on the passenger’s seat of Kaminski’s vehicle.

The deputy ordered Kaminski to get out of the car. Kaminski refused, drove into the driveway, got out and ran into the home. As the deputy pursued him, Kaminski fired a gun at the deputy, who had only been working alone for two works.

The front door of the home opened up and the deputy, whose name is not being released, saw the wife and her mother. He decided not to fire and took cover behind a patrol car.

A few minutes later, the wife, her mother and her friend left the house.

The deputy got them a safe distance away.

The sheriff’s office deployed a SWAT team and a crisis management team.  James Steffens, the agency’s chief forensic officer and the leader of the SWAT team, said deputies tried negotiating with Kaminski, but talks failed.

He fled out of the rear entrance of the home and went to a carport. Deputies tried to get him to surrender. He fired an AK-47 at deputies taking cover behind a car in front of the residence.

The car was hit at least five times.

Deputies returned fire and hit Kaminski. He died from his injuries.

Steffens said that deputies go to scenes to “save lives, not to take lives, but this suspect gave us no other choice.”

Sheriff Chris Nocco said family members told deputies that Kaminski “had mental health issues. Which probably led to the conclusion of this incident.” 
   
Rosa said Kaminski has been fighting manic depression and bipolar disease for 10 years.