PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — State Attorney Bruce Bartlett has officially cleared two Pinellas Park police officers in the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Ryan Lecompte, labeling the use of force “justifiable homicide” under Florida law.
The decision, released Friday morning, follows a weeks-long investigation into the March 31 standoff at a home on Briar Ridge Court North. The incident began just before noon when a caller reported that Lecompte had threatened him with a rifle.
When patrol officers couldn’t get Lecompte to talk, a SWAT team was called in. For several hours, negotiators tried to end the situation peacefully. Eventually, tactical teams used an MRAP armored vehicle to breach the front door and flew a drone inside to find him.
Video from that drone showed Lecompte pointing a Mossberg 500 20-gauge shotgun directly at officers. From across the street, Corporal Wesley Ducheney and Officer Ryan Poletz fired four rounds. Lecompte was hit and later died at a local hospital.
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In a letter to Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Bartlett wrote that the officers were in the “lawful performance of their duties” when Lecompte committed an aggravated assault by leveling the shotgun at them.
“The force used by Corporal Wesley Ducheney and Officer Ryan Poletz was a reasonable response to the circumstances,” Bartlett stated. “Corporal Wesley Ducheney and Officer Ryan Poletz had every reason to be justifiably in fear for their own life, the lives of the other officers, and civilians in the immediate area.”
During the initial investigation, Sheriff Gualtieri noted that Lecompte had already pointed an AR-15 at a victim three times before police arrived.
“We don’t need to wait for him to shoot,” Gualtieri said at the time. “He’s the one that created this situation and it is what it is.”
The investigation was handled by the Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force, an independent body created in 2020 to ensure local agencies do not investigate their own officer-involved shootings.
Corporal Ducheney, a 13-year veteran, and Officer Poletz, who joined the department in 2017, were not injured during the confrontation.
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