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By STEPHEN THOMPSON
The Tampa Tribune
CLEARWATER - Before he was fatally shot by a Clearwater police officer Thursday night, a 20-year-old unemployed waiter had never had a confrontation with authorities, his mother said.
“He never was in trouble. Ever,” Doreen Rosenbloom said of her son Joshua, who police say was wielding a samurai sword when he was shot to death at Lantana Apartments.
“That’s why it’s such a shock to all of us,” Rosenbloom said from her home in Pasco County. “You hear of this stuff, but you never think it’s going to be your own son. It totally blew us away.”
Clearwater police on Friday provided a more detailed account of the 6:31 p.m. shooting, as well as Joshua Rosenbloom’s identity.
Police spokesman Wayne Shelor and Rosenbloom’s family say Rosenbloom’s girlfriend called authorities because she thought Rosenbloom was suicidal. He had taken too many of the antidepressants he recently had been prescribed, and he was armed with the sword.
The girlfriend feared Rosenbloom might kill himself before police arrived, Shelor said.
When two Clearwater police officers entered the couple’s second-floor apartment, Rosenbloom was behind a closed door, Shelor said. One officer, Robert Furman, was carrying a gun that fires beanbags intended to disable a person temporarily. The other officer, George Phillips, was armed with a department-issue .40-caliber handgun.
Within seconds, Rosenbloom confronted them, Shelor said. Furman fired a beanbag round, which struck Rosenbloom in the chest, but Rosenbloom remained on his feet, Shelor said. Phillips then fired his gun at least once.
Neither officer previously had been involved in a shooting.
“The idea that the police shot him three times is more than I can handle,” Doreen Rosenbloom said. “Do I blame them? I don’t know. It’s just so new and fresh.”
Rosenbloom remembered her son as a “good kid” with a dry sense of humor, aspirations of studying psychology to become a therapist, and a love for the band Tool and Dave Matthews.
Records confirm Rosenbloom’s assessment of her youngest son as a man who never had been charged with a crime.
He recently was troubled, however, about losing a job as a waiter at a Melting Pot restaurant, his mother said. A recent situation involving his brother, Jason, also upset him, she said.
Jason was shot June 5 in a dispute with a neighbor in Clearwater, Pinellas County sheriff’s authorities said. Unlike his brother, Jason Rosenbloom survived.
Contact Stephen Thompson at (727) 823-3303 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.
If the police had information that he was on anti-depressants and had taken more than prescribed, then they are wrong. They should have taken time to work things out. There is always time to shoot a person. If he is only a danger to himself then more time should have been afforded. The article states they had this information. If he had a gun it would be understandable to shoot him. But a samurai sword? This doesn’t look good for the police or the mentally ill people of Clearwater.
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Posted by Daryl Johns, Tampa on 06/13 at 07:31 PM
Are you kidding me? Given him time to work things out? And then if he killed himself you could have written that the cops should have done something to help him. Right? And a samurai sword can’t hurt you either, right? I mean it can’t kill you, right? Is that what you meant?
RING, RING! Time to wake up! People should be held accountable for their actions even if they are under the influence of something. If someone is on drugs,witnessed a slaying, got made fun of because they were fat or had any number of other traumatic events happen in their lives it’s OK for them to harm others? Quit making excuses and take responsibility.