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Bad Nights, Yes, But No Regrets, Bailiff Says Of Fatal Shooting

News Channel 8 photo by CHRIS TAYLOR

Marvin Glover, left, and B.J. Lyons recount details of the shooting of in the Pinellas County Courthouse after Glenn Powell pulled a gun.

By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 15, 2008

Updated: 05/15/2008 04:50 pm

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Glen Lee Powell

CLEARWATER – Every day, bailiff B.J. Lyons has thought about his role in the shooting last week of a Brandon man in the lobby of the St. Petersburg courthouse, though he expects that to lessen with time.

The subsequent death of Glen Powell, he acknowledged, has kept him awake some nights.

Still, he has no regrets.

"I did what I had to do," Lyons said at a news conference this afternoon at which a video of the shooting was released, along with a ruling by the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office that Lyons and another bailiff were justified in shooting Powell on May 7.

The other bailiff, Marvin Glover, spoke, also. Between the two of them they portrayed a chilling portrait of what occurred in 12 seconds -- and four freeze-frame shots taken by the surveillance camera. The prosecutor's ruling also contains new details.

Powell's wife of six years, Vivian, had filed for divorce from Powell, and Powell had until May 7 to respond, according to the prosecutor's ruling. That morning, Powell and his mother sat down with an attorney to craft his response, and afterward she suggested they drop it off together at the St. Petersburg courthouse, where the case would eventually be assigned to a judge.

Powell told his mother she couldn't go with him, the ruling says. When asked why, he told her she would find out later. His mother then asked if he were going to do anything stupid, and he told he was not, and that she shouldn't worry about it.

Shortly after 1 p.m., he walked to the courthouse entrance. Outside he asked a woman and her mother where to file papers. The mother instructed him to go inside and through the metal detectors, the ruling said. Both remembered Powell seeming angry, and he had a strange look on his face as he walked to the door. The mother also saw the butt of a gun protruding from the bottom of Powell's backpack.

He was also wearing a fanny pack. Later authorities would find in the fanny pack 61 live rounds, and an additional fully-loaded clip containing 10 more rounds for his .45-caliber P220 Sig Sauer pistol, the ruling says. In the fanny pack there was also a loading assist device used to quickly reload empty clips.

In the backpack were a gas mask with filters, a tinted insert, and a pair of prescription glasses attached to the inside of the mask. Powell wore eye glasses. There was also an 18-inch curved Khukuri knife with a sheath.

After he walked in, Glover told him to put his bags on a conveyor belt so they could be scanned by an X-ray machine. But Powell ignored him, making his way quickly toward the walk-through metal detector. Lyons saw him pull the Sig Sauer from his right side, yelled "gun," and pulled his department firearm and fired it.

Powell fired, too, striking Lyons' radio microphone on his shoulder which caused a minor abrasion. Glover fired at Powell but wasn't hit.

Powell was struck six times – once in the heart, once in the liver, once in the abdomen, two shots to his groin, and one in the middle right lower back. The wounds to the heart and liver alone were enough to kill him, the prosecutor's ruling said.

Lyons had to turn to Glover and tell him to stop firing, Glover said.

Lyons said the speed with which Powell was trying to make it through the walk-through metal detector was one thing that drew his attention. But there were other signs, too.

Lyons cautioned that it was hard to describe how his training was triggered by these subtleties.

"The eye-to-eye contact he made with me and I made with him put me on alert status naturally," Lyons said. "We teach to read body language," said Lyons, a firearms instructor. "We teach to read facial expressions."

"We were threatened," Lyons said. "We met that threat with force."

Together he and Glover fired 11 times, Powell twice.

"He shot so he had bad intentions," said Lyons. "We'll never know what his true intentions were once he cleared my partner and I. We can only assume they weren't good."

Lyons felt the impact of Powell's bullet on his shoulder, but also knew Powell was still on his feet, so he ignored the wound.

Glover said that once Lyons yelled "gun," a couple of thoughts flashed through his mind – that he didn't want to accidentally shoot his partner by placing Lyons in his line of fire, and that Lyons and Powell were just feet apart.

"There was no time to be frightened," he said. One thing that clued in Glover that something was amiss was that, unlike everyone else, Powell ignored his order to put his packs on the conveyor belt.

"I could feel the brass from my gun as it was ejecting," Glover said. He didn't stop shooting until Powell fell to the floor, and Lyons told him to stop shooting, he said.

The two, who are technically Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies working as bailiffs, have returned to work, said Pinellas Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner.

"I feel compelled to commend both Deputy Lyons and Deputy Glover on their rapid response, placing their lives in danger to prevent what could have been a tragic incident of immeasurable proportions for the patrons and employees of the St. Petersburg courthouse," wrote State Attorney Bernie McCabe in the ruling.

Earlier this week, Pinellas Sheriff Jim Coats, who oversees courthouse security, said his staff is contemplating installing armored shields three to four feet high at some courthouse entrances, so bailiffs can take cover.

Also, earlier this week, the Pinellas Police Standards Training Council, which coordinates policy among Pinellas law enforcement agencies, made a security request of Pinellas-Pasco Chief Circuit Judge Robert J. Morris Jr.

As it stands now, sheriff's deputies are allowed to bring their holstered guns into courtrooms, but police officers with other agencies, such as the St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Largo police departments are not, said Lester Aradi, Largo's police chief and the chairman of the council. They have to check in their weapons.

"Had that gunman prevailed in the courthouse in St. Petersburg and gotten past the front security measures his next encounter may have been with a uniformed city police officer who is unarmed and unable to defend himself, let alone the courthouse," said Aradi, who supports the proposed measure.

Reader Comments

Posted by ( thatguyfl82 ) on May 15, 2008 at 3:23 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

This may sound somewhat selfish... But Thank you BJ for "finishing" the job at hand and not allowing this man to waste more Taxpayers money by sitting in jail cells and courtrooms for the rest of his life!!

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Bad Nights, Yes, But No Regrets, Bailiff Says Of Fatal Shooting

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