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Tragedy On Pershing Street: Taser Fails To Stop Fatal St. Petersburg Police Shooting

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. – A St. Petersburg home became the scene of a fatal police shooting late Sunday morning after a welfare check on a suicidal man took a violent turn. The Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force has launched an independent review into the incident.

St. Petersburg Police Department officers arrived at a residence at 121 Pershing Street Northeast around 11:31 a.m. on June 28, 2026. According to dispatch records, a caller reported that a resident, identified as 37-year-old Kasey Sedlock, was suicidal and armed with a knife.

When officers entered the home, they spotted Sedlock down a hallway. Investigators stated he was holding a knife and repeatedly telling the responding officers to “shoot me.”

In an effort to resolve the situation without lethal force, officers deployed a taser two separate times. The less-lethal attempts failed to neutralize the threat.

Pinellas County Sheriff
Pinellas County Sheriff

While the tasers caused Sedlock to briefly drop the knife, he quickly picked it back up. Investigators noted he continued shouting “shoot me” while standing up from the floor and moving toward the officers with the weapon.

At that point, officers fired four rounds at Sedlock. Paramedics rushed him to a nearby hospital, where medical staff pronounced him dead at 12:18 p.m.

The confrontation left one officer hospitalized due to blood exposure, though authorities reported no other physical injuries to the department’s personnel. Following standard protocol for officer-involved shootings, the officer who fired the rounds has been placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation plays out.

Because a new, expanded version of Marsy’s Law goes into effect on July 1st, police are withholding the names of the involved officers for 72 hours.

The Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force, which is handling the case, was established in 2020 to handle local law enforcement use-of-force incidents. The group functions as an outside agency to ensure all shootings are scrutinized objectively, removing the internal department from investigating its own staff.

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