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Police: Clearwater man shot, charged after drug sting

News Channel 8 photo by TODD DAVIS

Undercover Clearwater detectives fired several times as Jeffery Lee, 19, tried to leave a drug sting Sunday night at a McDonald's on Gulf to Bay Boulevard.

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TBO.com

Published: April 27, 2009

Updated: 04/28/2009 03:14 pm

CLEARWATER - A 19-year-old man was shot as he tried to flee undercover officers after a drug sting at a Clearwater McDonald's, police said.

Jeffrey Lee, of 1560 Jefferson Ave., Apartment H, Clearwater, was airlifted to a hospital and is in critical but stable condition, public safety spokeswoman Elizabeth Watts said. No undercover detectives were injured.

The shooting occurred at 9:01 p.m. Monday in the parking lot of the McDonald's, 1860 Gulf to Bay Blvd., after undercover detectives from the Clearwater police vice-narcotics unit bought cocaine from Lee, Watts said.

When officers moved in to arrest Lee in his vehicle, using their police vehicles to block his, he stepped on the gas and rammed one of the police cars, Watts said.

Two detectives then got out of their vehicles and identified themselves as police officers, Watts said. Lee, however, kept trying to push the police cars out of his way, the spokeswoman said. At least one of the detectives was in Lee's path, and both detectives opened fire on Lee, she said.

Lee has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and one count of fleeing and eluding, Watts said. The charges stemming from the alleged narcotics transaction are pending, she said.

In addition, Lee was charged with violating his probation in two prior cases — another in which he was charged with fleeing and eluding and one in which he was charged with cocaine possession.

The names of the two officers are not being released because of their undercover status. One has 13 years of experience and the other has 20 years of experience, Watts said. Both have been put on paid administrative leave while an internal affairs investigation is conducted, which is standard procedure, she said.

The police department vigorously defended its decision to conduct a drug operation outside a fast food restaurant, when members of the public were out and about.

"Public places are used in narcotics enforcement transactions to fit in with every day drug activity," Watts said in a statement. "Drug deals that do not include police occur in very public places on a daily basis. If a transaction is arranged in a remote location, the likeliness of a suspect showing up is slim to none."

In a prepared statement, Clearwater Police Chief Sid Klein echoed those sentiments.

"Buy-bust operations are well-planned and well-supervised transactions," Klein said. "The risk to the public is very minimal since many specific steps are taken to ensure safety.

"There are multiple undercover and uniformed officers in strategic locations," Klein's statement says. "Surveillance units closely monitor activity and foot traffic. A very thorough risk assessment is done and if there appears to be any kind of danger, the operation is called off," he said.

"There are many cases where money and drugs have walked because an operation appeared to be too risky and was called off," he said.

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