CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. — Two Charlotte County deputies are on administrative leave following a deputy involved shooting that left Elroy Clarke dead outside of his home on Wednesday.
Watch FOX 4's Alex Orenczuk report on an officer involved shooting in Charlotte County:
According to Sheriff Bill Prummell, Clarke called 911 for help removing a man from his property just after noon on Wednesday. When deputies arrived at the home on Sandy Pine Drive, they realized Clarke had a warrant for his arrest for a failure to appear on a trespassing charge. Sheriff Prummell said when deputies tried to arrest Clarke, he became uncooperative.
“When they told him he was under arrest and asked him to place his hands behind his back he refused to do so,” said Sheriff Prumell. “He was very non-compliant.”
Sheriff Prummell said before moving to lethal force, deputies used a variety of less-lethal tactics to try and subdue Clarke.
“They tried to use the taser several times, it had no effect, they used pepper spray, it had no effect,” said Sheriff Prummell. “They used a baton and three deputies went hands one with him at one point when he was down on the ground and he threw them off of him like rag-dolls, so nothing was working.”
Sheriff Prummell said a deputy even used a less-lethal shotgun with bean bag rounds to stop Clarke, but it didn’t work either.
“He was shot with the bean bag rounds several times, again, no effect,” said Sheriff Prummell. “Shortly after he was shot with the bean bag rounds he charged one of the deputies and he actually got his hands on the deputy, the deputy had drawn his weapon and fired.”
The man Clarke wanted removed from his property was Troy Johnson, who according to CCSO was living at Clarke’s home for the last three months. CCSO said Johnson was taken into custody.
Sheriff Prummell said the two men gave deputies false names in their initial interaction and that Clarke referred to himself as the king and Johnson referred to himself as the emperor.
FOX 4 spoke with Dr. David Thomas, professor of forensic studies at FGCU for insight on the deputies use of force.
“The point when an officer or deputy should use deadly force is when their life is in danger, or somebody else's life is in danger,” said Thomas. “At this point we have tried everything we have in our tool box and for the normal person under normal conditions this works. So, those deputies, they felt their life was in danger of serious injury and or death even with this guy’s bare hands so they had no choice but to use deadly force.”
FOX 4 also asked Thomas why the deputies would continue to try and take Clarke into custody after he had allegedly resisted through several attempts.
“When you start putting hands on and telling someone they are under arrest, they don’t have the ability under statute to say ‘I'm going to unarrest you’,” said Thomas. “As soon as you put those words out, that person is under arrest so they have to go physically affect that arrest.”
According to the sheriff’s office the two deputies who fired the lethal shots have been put on administrative leave as the investigation is conducted, per the agency protocol.
For those that knew Elroy Clarke the reaction to police came as a surprise.
One friend FOX 4 spoke with said "he was a family man" had several kids and didn't have that demeanor.
"They should have been able to apprehend him... with out physically harming that man. " Asafa Omasa Dey said.
FOX 4 also spoke with a contractor that worked in Clarke's home. The home was under construction at the time, being renovated.
"The guy I knew wasn't aggressive he was a very calm spoken guy - I think someone is making it out to seem like something it wasn't." said Dalton Fiata.
