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Deputy who killed Jarrell Walker resigns from SWAT team

Cpl. Chris Taylor will continue training other deputies. The sheriff confirmed the shooting was justified.

By LAUREN BAYNE ANDERSON
Published June 13, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Cpl. Chris Taylor, the Pinellas County sheriff's deputy who shot and killed 19-year-old Jarrell S. Walker during a drug raid, has resigned from the SWAT team but will continue training other deputies.

Taylor's resignation was announced Monday as Sheriff Jim Coats said he agreed with the findings of a shooting review board that Taylor was justified in shooting Walker under current policies.

Taylor resigned in a two-sentence letter Friday, and told Coats he thought it was best for the Sheriff's Office. Coats said he did not try to persuade Taylor to stay on the SWAT team, but said no one encouraged him to resign.

"He felt it would be in the SWAT team's best interest if he resigned from the team because of all the controversy," Coats said. "I thought he made the right decision. This puts closure to this."

Taylor was part of a SWAT team that conducted a drug raid on Walker's St. Petersburg home in April. Taylor said he shot Walker after he refused to show his hands when ordered and searched for something under a couch. No gun was found under the couch, though one was found in a couch in another room.

The review board concluded last month that Taylor complied with sheriff's office policy and training "as currently written." State Attorney Bernie McCabe also cleared Taylor of any criminal wrongdoing.

Walker's mother, Wanda, said she's glad Taylor is off the SWAT team but still is not satisfied.

"He won't be able to kill someone else's child, but it's still a slap in the face," she said. "He's just going to train the next person to come along and feel the same way he does. They have to be trained right."

Walker said she is looking toward the outcome of an FBI inquiry into the case. St. Petersburg NAACP president Darryl Rouson asked the FBI May 11 to review Walker's death.

Coats said he has assigned two work groups to revise the agency's deadly force policies to clarify when a shooting is necessary.

[Last modified June 13, 2005, 20:13:14]