PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Video footage inside the main Surf Style shop on Clearwater Beach adds context to Tuesday night's fatal shooting.
Clearwater Police Department released the video footage Thursday. In the video, Jonathan Stanley and a friend walk through the store.
In the video, Stanley's friend is seen getting punched. Clearwater Police Chief Daniel Slaughter says the man seen punching Stanley's friend was Rodney Sweeney.
"The victim and the suspect did not necessarily appear to know each other at this particular point. There was some type of verbal contact that may have occurred throughout the day that we're still getting to the bottom of," Chief Slaughter said.
Police say the fight ended on the second floor of the store. Chief Slaughter says that's when Stanley pulled out a gun and fired three times, shooting Sweeney twice.
"There is this battery that occurred, but this battery is no excuse for pulling out a firearm. The behavior of which Jonathan did and based on even some of his movements before the battery occurring, it appears very likely he intended to utilize that firearm from the get-go," he said.
Chief Slaughter said Stanley hid the gun in the store after the shooting. The Chief showed a video of Stanley hiding between a clothes rack himself.
"The brother of the deceased locates a firearm after checking on his brother. He starts to run after and try to locate Jonathan, the person who killed his brother. From that point, the brother returns to his home. He was cooperative with us. He did have the firearm. So we believe we have recovered the murder weapon," he added.
Police say the man with Stanley, the one who was punched, is not facing charges. However, police say a man was arrested for helping hide Stanley and even moving his car.
"Based on his statement and his information he provided the detective, he was well aware that this homicide had happened. He had seen the media footage and the pictures and knew what occurred and knew and intentionally assisted him in this endeavor," Chief Slaughter said.
The shooting comes during a busy weekend. Ryan Reifsnyder is in Clearwater for Spring Break.
"I've been here before and there's been a lot more this year than previous years," Reifsnyder said.
Chief Slaughter says Clearwater Beach is a safe place despite the shooting and other crime calls this week.
"We're actually trending much lower on crimes on Clearwater Beach. And in fact, even with these incidences, we're still below our normal levels from 2022," Chief Slaughter said.
Reifsnyder says the extra presence brings him peace of mind.
"That really does make a difference," he said.
Chief Slaughter says it's not just the extra presence that made a difference in solving the murder.
"I don't want to diminish the great work that the detective does, leveraging that technology, or what I would refer to as the air traffic controller, which is that crime analyst that is just, you know, allowing us to move at the speed of light to close these things," Chief Slaughter said.
Inside the Real-Time Crime lab, analysts and detectives can tap into all city cameras and some business cameras. In addition, that lab provides immediate answers to help answer some questions.
"Utilizing the network of video cameras, databases, license plate reader technology and our crime analysts that work in our Real-Time Operations Center. We very early on from this video footage, obviously were able to get a general description of Jonathan. The analysts were able to start combing through video footage and very quickly identified video footage of him milling about throughout Clearwater Beach, which is certainly a much higher resolution video footage than that security footage from those from those videos; we were certainly able to give you good video footage to put out," the Chief said.
