By STEPHEN THOMPSON
The Tampa Tribune

SAFETY HARBOR - An undercover St. Petersburg detective has been cleared of wrongdoing in the fatal shooting in May of a man suspected in five bank robberies.

The name of the detective has not been released because he works in an undercover capacity with the St. Petersburg Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit.

The 37-year-old was justified when he fired six rounds from an AR-15 rifle at John O. McFarland, striking him three times, Police Chief Chuck Harmon and other police administrators ruled Wednesday.

Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe had already concluded the 14-year veteran did not break any criminal statutes, according to a May 23 letter by McCabe the St. Petersburg Police Department released on Wednesday.

On May 2, members of the SIU unit were outside a warehouse at 1600 10th St. S., keeping an eye out for McFarland, police documents state. They had been told the 49-year-old ex-convict had been staying in an apartment inside where the warehouse manager lived.

The warehouse manager, John Morgan, told investigators he had just returned to the apartment and “it was apparent ... McFarland was in need of cocaine,” according to a St. Petersburg internal affairs case file made public Wednesday.

Morgan loaned McFarland his cell phone, and McFarland walked down a set of stairs and stepped outside to use it because the warehouse’s metal shell obstructed its signal, Morgan told internal affairs investigators.

The detective armed with the AR-15, and one other member of the SIU unit, confronted McFarland before he could mount the stairs to return to the apartment, the investigative file says. At first, McFarland complied with their commands and raised his hands in the air, the file says.

But then he suddenly lowered his arms and turned his body sideways, a standard move when someone in an imminent gunfight wants to decrease his body mass to avoid getting shot, investigators say.

McFarland then thrust his hands under his shirt to his waistband while the two detectives repeatedly yelled at him to show his hands.

When McFarland pulled his hand out quickly, he was shot from a distance of 20 to 25 feet by the detective with the AR-15, the investigative file shows. The other detective, who was armed with a shotgun, had his safety off and was applying pressure on the trigger of his own weapon, the file shows.

“You saw what he did?” the detective with the AR-15 reportedly told his colleague. “I had to shoot him. I had no choice.”

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 823-3303 or spthompson@tampatrib.com. 

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