TAVARES, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -
Jonathan Brown spoke to FOX 35 along with his attorney, Laura Hargrove, just hours after he was cleared of criminal charges that led to a deputy-involved shooting of an innocent man in July.
"I'm not an attempted murderer, I'm not an assaulter I'm not a batterer, the only thing I was trying to there was break up a fight, I was trying to do the right thing and keep the peace," said the 31-year-old Brown.
Lake County deputies were looking to arrest brown, a former police officer, on July 15 on attempted murder charges stemming from a fight in Leesburg, but instead they went to the wrong apartment and ended up shooting and killing 26-year-old Andrew Lee Scott when he opened the door armed with a gun.
"My heart goes out to their friends and families especially the holidays coming up, the burden to me is on the sheriff's office," said Brown.
Brown's defense attorney says the dismissal only adds insult to injury considering an innocent man was killed in the search her client who's now been cleared of any wrong doing.
"There was no case against Mr. Jonathan brown, had they done their job they would have realized that and Mr. Scott would of still been alive," Hargrove said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has since ruled that the lake county deputy was justified in shooting Scott when he answered the door, but Hargrove says the sheriff's office needs to seriously review their policies.
"The sheriff's office practices need to be revaluated there needs to be some retraining, " Hargrove said.
The Lake County Sheriff's office couldn't be reached for comment in regards to the charges being dropped. The family of Andrew Lee Scott they're still in the process of filing a civil lawsuit against the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
