{"id":382714,"date":"2026-08-27T16:32:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382714\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T16:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:32:20","slug":"sheriffs-office-investigating-after-suspect-dies-in-st-pete-police-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382714\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff’s office investigating after suspect dies in St. Pete police custody"},"content":{"rendered":"

PCSO says St. Pete police officers did not use intentional deadly force.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a welfare check turned deadly in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

It happened Saturday morning shortly before 11 a.m. An officer with the St. Petersburg Police Department was flagged down by a woman who said her stepson was experiencing a mental health crisis.<\/p>\n


\n \"\" <\/p>\n


\n This story continues below. <\/p>\n

Officers arrived at the residence at 7296 5th Street North and attempted to make contact with 48-year-old Brian Pepal.<\/p>\n

Pepal then exited the home and immediately attacked the officers, who defended themselves and ultimately took Pepal to the ground, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

That’s when officers said they discovered Pepal was not breathing. Life-saving measures were initiated until paramedics arrived.<\/p>\n

Pepal was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

PCSO’s Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force is investigating the incident. The task force says “none of the force used by the officers was intentional deadly.”<\/p>\n

It’s unknown why Pepal stopped breathing; however, PCSO says he did have pre-existing medical conditions.<\/p>\n

One officer involved in the incident sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n

The medical examiner will determine Pepal’s official cause of death pending an autopsy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PCSO says St. Pete police officers did not use intentional deadly force. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The Pinellas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-382714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}