A Florida homeowner shot at a pool cleaner who showed up after hours
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When the pool cleaner arrived at the Dunedin, Fla., home on June 15, he carried a flashlight because it was already dark. The homeowner inside didn’t recognize him and mistook him for an intruder trying to break into the house, officials said. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Within minutes, Bradley Hocevar — who was inside the home with his wife, Jana — fired his M4 carbine 30 times, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in a news conference Monday.
Karl Polek, the 33-year-old pool cleaner, wasn’t hit by the gunfire but was injured by shattered glass and shrapnel as rounds blasted through a window with closed blinds. Gualtieri, who called the incident “avoidable,” said no crime had been committed, citing Florida’s castle doctrine and “stand your ground” law that allow people to protect themselves using force.
“It’s probably one of those things that I would call lawful but awful,” Gualtieri said. “It’s lawful, but it’s just an awful set of circumstances. But we’re fortunate that no one was seriously hurt.”
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Hocevar, 57, who Gualtieri said is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.
Surveillance footage shows Polek walking around the pool area that Thursday night. The Bay Area Pool Techs cleaner was carrying a long pool skimmer and appeared to wave toward the windows before crouching down to work, the video shows.
The Hocevars had been watching a movie in their bedroom but then went into the kitchen to grab something to eat, Gualtieri said. That’s when they heard noises coming from their lanai and saw a man walking around their pool with a flashlight, according to the sheriff. Around 9 p.m., Jana Hocevar called 911.
Jana asked for officers to hurry to the home, according to an audio recording obtained by The Post. About three minutes into the call, as the dispatcher asked about the man’s appearance, a loud bang rattled in the background, followed by Jana’s scream.
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“What was that?” the dispatcher yelled.
“Nothing,” the woman responded before telling someone: “Don’t shoot.” Then the dispatcher asked who had fired the weapon and what kind it was.
The caller told the dispatcher her husband had fired the weapon as a man could be heard in the background yelling, “Who is it?”
The resounding pop-pop-pop of more gunfire suddenly pierced through the call.
“I need him to stop shooting the gun,” the dispatcher said. “I need him to put down the gun, ma’am.”
Polek approaching the window with a flashlight in hand is what triggered the first round of bullets, Gualtieri said, adding that it had made Hocevar — who was crouching behind a couch with the weapon — believe an intruder was attempting to break into his home. Polek fled the pool area as glass shattered onto the patio. Some 47 seconds after, Hocevar fired again, eventually emptying 30 rounds from the magazine, the sheriff said.
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Gualtieri said Polek had been the couple’s pool tech for at least six months. He typically tended to the pool during the day but had been delayed, the sheriff added.
Bay Area Pool Techs did not respond to The Post’s request for comment. Gualtieri said Polek did not knock or announce himself before going out on the pool deck.
Ultimately, Hocevar wasn’t “sitting there trigger-happy wanting to shoot,” Gualtieri said, but was “trying to protect himself and his wife, and he was concerned about the circumstances” — a reaction the sheriff said didn’t run afoul of Florida law.
Florida in 2005 passed its stand-your-ground law, which expanded the right to defend one’s home from intruders — known as castle doctrine — into a more general right to use force in any public place.
That law — and those in other states — have become a flash point in national debates over gun violence and self-defense. While the National Rifle Association has said they protect people’s “fundamental right to self-defense” and are a necessary public-safety tool, opponents say they lead to more violence.
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“The particular circumstances may differ, but the common theme across them is the sort of idea that it’s okay to shoot first and ask questions later,” said Lindsay Nichols, policy director at the Giffords Law Center, an advocacy and research organization promoting gun control. “And that so often results in avoidable tragedies.”
Last year, a study published by JAMA Network Open, a peer-reviewed medical journal, found that the laws were associated with an increase in firearm homicide rates — with the largest jumps occurring in southern states such as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Missouri. The study’s authors concluded that the laws don’t reduce homicides, as supporters contend, The Post previously reported.
Nichols said recent shootings also show that some in the United States are too quick to reach for a gun and fire — even when the use of a weapon could be avoided.
“Too often people operate under the assumption that others are armed and have malicious intent, even when it turns out it’s just the pool cleaner,” she said.
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Source: The Washington Post
