Officers shot and killed Ryan LeCompte outside of his Pinellas Park home following an hours-long standoff on March 31.

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — The State Attorney’s Office said a deadly shooting from nearly three weeks ago involving Pinellas Park police officers was “justifiable.”

The Pinellas Park Police Department responded just after 11:30 a.m. on March 31 to the corner of Briar Ridge Road and Cedar Brook Drive S. Police discovered that a man was doing landscaping business in the area, and while he was sitting in his marked business truck, Ryan Jacob LeCompte, 39, reportedly came in and out of his house multiple times and was yelling profanities at the man while holding an AR-15 rifle. 



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Eventually, the victim fled the area and called police, thinking that he was going to get shot. 

The Pinellas Park SWAT team was eventually activated because LeCompte was barricaded inside the home. Officers said they tried to text, call and verbally tell LeCompte to come out of the house to resolve the situation peacefully. 

After unsuccessful efforts and several hours of trying to get him to leave the home, police said they used an armored vehicle to help breach the front door and deployed a drone towards the home to see what was going on. 

As the armored vehicle reached the door and the frame was pulled off, LeCompte came to the front door with a shotgun. According to the sheriff’s office, LeCompte took the shotgun and raised it up at officers who were across the street.

Corporal Wes DuCheney and Officer Ryan Poletz fired multiple rounds, striking LeCompte. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

No officers were injured on scene, and no other people were inside the home at the time of the shooting. 

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According to a new document from the State Attorney’s Office, Ducheney and Poletz were notified beforehand that LeCompte was a veteran, was armed with multiple firearms and had recently been on a “drinking binge.” Investigators had also spoken to neighbors, a girlfriend, as well as an ex-wife and learned that LeCompte “possibly had PTSD from his military service, was an alcoholic, and had been taking several medications” for anxiety and depression. 

The State Attorney’s Office said Ducheney and Poletz were “in the lawful performance of their duties,” had a “reasonable response to the circumstances,” and “had every reason to be justifiably in fear for their own life, the lives of the other officers, and civilians in the immediate area.”

DuCheney has been with the police department for 13 years and is a member of the SWAT team. Poletz has been with the department for about nine years. Shortly after the shooting happened, they were both put on routine administrative leave.

See the full document from the State Attorney’s Office below.