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St. Pete Courthouse Shooting Ruled Justified; Bailiffs Speak

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 16, 2008

Updated: 05/16/2008 12:11 am

CLEARWATER - Every day, bailiff B.J. Lyons thinks about the part he played in killing a man who tried to shoot his way past a security checkpoint into the St. Petersburg courthouse.

The death of Glen Powell has kept him awake some nights.

Still, he has no regrets.

"I did what I had to do," Lyons said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, which reviewed the shooting, agreed. In a ruling released Thursday, the office said Lyons and bailiff Marvin Glover were justified in shooting the Brandon man in the May 7 episode.

Accounts from the bailiffs, freeze-frame footage taken by a surveillance camera and the prosecutor's ruling portray a chilling portrait of what occurred at the courthouse entrance in just 12 seconds.

Powell's wife of six years, Vivian, had filed for divorce. Powell had until May 7 to respond to the petition, the prosecutor's ruling said.

That morning, Powell and his mother sat down with an attorney to craft his response.

She suggested they drop it off together at the St. Petersburg courthouse, where the case eventually would be assigned to a judge. But 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 asked if he were going to do anything stupid. He said he was not.

Shortly after 1 p.m. that day, he walked toward the courthouse entrance.

Outside, he asked for directions to where he should go to file papers. A woman told him to go in the main entrance. Then she saw the butt of a gun protruding from Powell's backpack.

He also wore a fanny pack. In it authorities later would find 61 rounds, a clip containing 10 more rounds for his .45-caliber P220 Sig Sauer pistol and a device to quickly reload empty clips.

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

After Powell came into the courthouse and its security checkpoint, Glover told him to put his bags on a conveyor belt so they could be scanned by an X-ray machine. Powell ignored him, making his way quickly toward a walk-through metal detector.

Lyons saw him pull the Sig Sauer from his right side and yelled, "Gun!" He said he pulled his department firearm and fired.

Powell fired, too, striking Lyons' radio microphone and causing a minor abrasion. Glover also fired.

The report says Powell was struck six times: once each in the heart, liver, abdomen, lower back and twice in the groin. The wounds to the heart and liver alone were enough to kill him, the prosecutor's ruling said.

Lyons said Powell's hurried attempt to go through the metal detector first drew his attention. There were other signs, too.

"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."

He and Glover fired 11 times; Powell twice.

"He shot so he had bad intentions," Lyons said. "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 Powell's bullet hit his shoulder, but knew Powell was still on his feet. Glover said he quickly thought he didn't want Lyons in his line of fire before he began shooting.

"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, he said.

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

"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," State Attorney Bernie McCabe wrote in the ruling.

This week, the Pinellas Police Standards Training Council, which coordinates policy among Pinellas law enforcement agencies, asked Pinellas-Pasco Chief Circuit Judge Robert J. Morris Jr. to reconsider the court's rules on police carrying guns in the courthouse.

As it stands, sheriff's deputies are allowed to bring their holstered guns into courtrooms. Police officers are not, said Lester Aradi, Largo's police chief and the chairman of the council.

They must check in their weapons before entering a courtroom.

"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," Aradi said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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