A Pinellas County deputy involved in a shooting in December 2015 was arrested Friday and charged with attempted manslaughter.
The shooting happened during a DUI traffic stop just after 3 a.m. in John's Pass, near Madeira Beach on Dec. 30, 2015.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Deputy Timothy Virden was not justified in shooting 26-year-old Dylan Thompkins-Holmes.
According to authorities, the incident began when Virden stopped a vehicle with a woman driving and her boyfriend in the passenger seat at Village Boulevard and 129th Avenue East.
In the report, Virden said Tompkins-Holmes was belligerent, so he handcuffed him and put him in a patrol car. That's when Virden said the suspect grabbed for his gun.
But the sheriff said the evidence shows that Tompkins-Holmes never reached for the deputy's gun and never resisted arrest.
"Instead of explaining what actually happened, Deputy Virden made up facts that simply could not have occurred and are inconsistent with the physical evidence and the eye witness testimony of another deputy," Gualtieri said.
Audio of the shooting was captured on dash cam video. Two deputies can be seen walking a handcuffed-Tompkins-Homes to a cruiser. Then, Tompkins-Homes is heard mouthing off to Deputy Virden who then shoots him twice.
Thompkins-Holmes was taken to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg with gunshot wounds to his wrist and abdomen.
Gualtieri said there was no justification for shooting Tompkins-Holmes and he fired Deputy Virden.
"Shooting an unarmed person in handcuffs, who through eyewitness testimony of another deputy, has offered no resistance because the person might kick you is not the legal use of deadly force,” he said.
A judge issued Virden an arrest warrant for attempted manslaughter and the former deputy turned himself into the Pinellas County Jail.
Tompkin-Holmes declined a request for an interview. The sheriff apologized to the Gulfport man and offered to pay for his medical expenses.
"You don't get shot for being a mouthy drunk,” he said. "I'm sorry it happened. I'm sorry that this occurred. I'm sorry that the man took a bullet in the gut and had a foot of his intestine that had to come out."
Gualtieri said Virden was a good deputy with an excellent performance record up until this point.
"Sometimes even good people do these things wrong,” he said. “When we do something wrong we have to accept responsibility no matter how bad or difficult that might be."