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Man killed after taunting cops had just left hospital

Staff photo by CHIP OSOWSKI

Kentin Brooks was the driver of a Ford Mustang who was killed Thursday morning after he opened fire on three Pinellas County deputies and an Indian Shores police officer, the sheriff's office said.

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By MARK  DOUGLAS | News Channel 8

Published: October 29, 2009

Updated: 10/29/2009 08:22 pm

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Kentin Brooks

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH - The widow of a man killed in a shootout after apparently taunting police said she had taken him for a mental evaluation just 12 hours before the incident began.

"I don't need anybody to check my head," 26-year-old Kentin Brooks told his wife after refusing a wrist band at the hospital. "I'm fine."

Alana Brooks, 24, had been concerned about her husband since he fell and gashed the front of his head during a fight in a club several months ago. "I wanted to believe he was OK," Brooks said.

He suffered from recurring headaches, she said, but wouldn't see a doctor because the couple does not have health insurance. "He blacked out and I was trying to get him to go to the hospital but he wouldn't go," Brooks said.

She said he worked as a hip hop artist and promoter and was just beginning to make a name for himself locally.

Brooks seemed fine when they last spoke at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, she said, speaking Thursday from the apartment they shared with their three young children on 79th Terrace North.

A friend called at 7 this morning to tell her he was dead.

Brooks opened fire, hitting the windshield of two cruisers, and was shot dead after a wild car pursuit spanning two hours, investigators said. The pursuit started when a deputy tried to pull over a black Ford Mustang that was driving erratically, and ended when the car hit a utility pole on Gulf Boulevard near Park Boulevard in Indian Shores.

In between, deputies monitored the car as the driver sped up, spun his tires, did "doughnuts" and even rammed an Indian Shores police cruiser, all in an apparent attempt to taunt law enforcement officers, they said.

After the crash, Brooks opened fire from inside the Mustang, hitting the windshields of two cruisers, investigators said. Officers returned fire, killing him. Three Pinellas County sheriff's deputies and an Indian Shores police officer are on paid administrative leave as the investigation continues.

Brooks had a criminal record and was released in March 2008 after 11 months in jail for carrying a concealed firearm, selling, manufacturing or delivering cocaine, and driving with a canceled, suspended or revoked license.

Alana Brooks said her husband came out of prison a changed man, determined to develop his rap music career and be a loving father to his three young boys.

"We were making plans to go to Disney," she said.

They had also been discussing plans for Halloween and Christmas.

Alana Brooks said she insisted Wednesday on taking her husband to the emergency room at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg. He had been up for three days without sleep, seemed depressed and was talking to himself. She stayed up with him for much of the time, she said.

They waited to be seen at the hospital for about 10 minutes. When hospital personnel tried to put a wrist band on him, he refused and stormed out.

"He said he was fine, he said, 'Baby I'm OK, I don't need no help,'" Brooks said."He said don't you think if something was wrong with me I wouldn't be able to drive?"

Alana Brooks said this afternoon she still hadn't told their boys -- Kentin Jr., 7; Kentez, 5; and Deon, 3. "How do you tell your three kids that love their dad with everything they got that they will never see him again?" Brooks said.

Brooks said she was waiting for a call from the Medical Examiner so she could contact a funeral home to recover her husband's body.

"I'm trying to figure out how I'm supposed to bury him. We don't even have life insurance," Brooks said.

Reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 709-2753.

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