ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Body camera video shows Orange County deputies talking with Antonio Chez Scippio’s mother. She tells deputies he’s been off his medicine and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, among other mental health problems.
“He’s been off his medication for about a month,” Gail Reed is heard saying to a deputy.
Deputies go inside the home to attempt to get Scippio to come out of the room. He informs them he has a knife, and then deputies begin to go outside.
“Let’s just get out of the house then. You got to get out too. He’s got a knife so,” one of the deputies told Reed.
As they’re walking out, you can hear a door open. Scippio starts to walk out. Deputies ask him to show his hands as he proceeds to walk out with a knife in hand. He tells deputies he’s ready to die.
Deputies repeatedly tell him to drop the knife.
In the video, you can see deputies walking backward. As they do, they ask him to draw back. In a second body camera view, you see the same thing as they, and Scippio’s mom beg for him to stop.
WFTV sat down with Attorney Jose Rivas to review the video. He says what shocks him about the video is that deputies had plenty of warning that Scippio was ill.
“There’s plenty of warning before they even go into the home. They’re told he hasn’t taken his medication. At that point, they’re in the garage; they’re safe. They could step out,” said Rivas.
A law enforcement training expert, Randy Nelson, says deputies followed the book.
“It was textbook. It was space and distance. They gave him space and distance. They even retreated and went as far as out of the house,” said Nelson.
Shortly after the shooting in February, Scippio’s mom talked exclusively with our Geovanny Dias. She said then they would be looking at legal options. She says deputies failed them.
“I told officers do not to shoot my son. If anything, you use a taser. Don’t shoot my son,” Reed said.
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