Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter provided new information during a Wednesday press conference on the events leading up to the fatal shooting of Robert Hubbard. Authorities had previously said Hubbard pointed a handgun at sheriff’s deputies. While authorities have disclosed Hubbard was armed with an unloaded, non-lethal weapon, Slaughter said law enforcement were left with no choice.
Speaking to reporters at press conference recorded by Tampa Bay Fox affiliate WTVT, Slaughter presented a side-by-side image of the pistol-style BB gun held by Hubbard and a Beretta M9 semi-automatic handgun.
Slaughter said it would take the “eyesight of an eagle” to tell the difference between the weapons at the distance officers were positioned from Hubbard. He said Hubbard exited the vehicle and brandished the weapon so quickly a deputy had to fire through the windshield of his service vehicle.
“There’s no reason that these deputies would have any knowledge this firearm was not real, and certainly Mr. Hubbard presented to the deputies as if it was real,” Slaughter said.
Four Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies shot Hubbard, 43, on June 30 after he allegedly used a gun a day earlier to steal a vehicle in nearby Hillsborough County, Clearwater Deputy Chief Michael Walek said to the Tampa Bay Times.
Walek told the paper and other media outlets that the vehicle had been linked to an attempted robbery and authorities issued an alert describing Hubbard as “armed and dangerous” and looking for a shootout with law enforcement. After a pursuit, Hubbard stopped the vehicle and allegedly pointed the weapon at police.
Slaughter said Wednesday the investigation following the incident found that deputies had fired 59 rounds at Hubbard, who was shot four times.
“This isn’t TV,” said Slaughter. “People don’t fall down immediately the moment they’re hit by bullets.”
Slaughter said Hubbard had suffered from depression since he was 15 and became involved in drugs and alcohol. A job loss in 2008 sent Hubbard into a “downward spiral” that involved two bank robberies and multiple suicide attempts, the police chief said.
Before the shooting, Hubbard’s relatives alerted local law enforcement after receiving “disturbing” texts about a having a “nice shootout” with police, said Slaughter. He said that one read, “I already hit a bank. I’m gone. Peace out.”
“From doing this business long enough I know there’s a family behind that that’s really struggling,” Slaughter added.
Newsweek reached out to the Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force, which is leading the investigation.
