Security footage provided by the Pinellas County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office shows a pool cleaner before he is shot by the homeowner, who allegedly believed the pool cleaner was an intruder.
A Florida homeowner who allegedly unloaded dozens of bullets on a pool cleaner he thought was an intruder will not face criminal charges.
Bradley Hocevar, 57, was acting within the bounds of the Sunshine State’s “Stand Your Ground” law when he opened fire on Karl Polek, 33, who was apparently at the home to clean Hocevar’s backyard pool, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gaultieri said at a press conference on Monday.
“[It’s] probably one of those things that I would call lawful but awful,” Gaultieri said of the June 15 shooting incident. “It’s lawful, but just an awful set of circumstances.”
Security footage and audio of a 911 call by Jana Hocevar, 43, reveals that the couple had no idea who was in their backyard at around 9:00 p.m. that night — only that it was a man and he appeared to be approaching the house with a flashlight. Exterior home camera footage shows Polek entering the backyard and appearing to prepare to clean the pool: He sets out his equipment, makes a few trips to his truck, and appears to be inspecting either the pool or the ground using his cellphone flashlight.
At one point, Polek is seen appearing to wave toward the inside of the house.
Bradley Hocevar apparently told Polek to leave, but Gaultieri said that due to the configuration of the house and where the homeowner was standing when he issued his message, it’s possible Polek didn’t hear the warning.
Bradley Hocevar fired two initial shots at Polek before eventually unloading more than 30 rounds from his AR-15 rifle.
“The bulk of those shots were after Polek had left the pool deck,” Gaultieri said at the press conference.
The 911 audio includes Jana Jocevar repeatedly asking her husband to stop shooting. The emergency dispatcher gave a similar command.
The sheriff said that it was “fortunate that nobody was seriously hurt,” and emphasized that “there’s no crime that was committed and Hocevar was acting within the law.”
Gaultieri said that Hocevar’s reaction to Polek was precisely the type of behavior that Florida law was meant to allow.
“This is about as squarely within the castle doctrine and stand your ground law as it gets,” said Gaultieri, referring to two legal defenses that allow someone to use deadly force against a perceived threat — even if the threat isn’t real.
The sheriff speculated as to what could have motivated Hocevar to open fire.
“He’s got a military background, it could have been somebody there that was there to get him for some reason,” Gaultieri said. He also said that the shooting was justified considering that it was “9:00 at night, totally dark out, your wife sees what is clearly a male subject [and] clearly doesn’t recognize him.”
Gaultieri notes that the clock on the security video, which shows the incident occurring at around 8:00 p.m., is off by one hour. The sheriff told reporters that the Hocevars’ pool cleaning company never did work after dark, and “certainly never at 9:00 at night.”
“There’s no way, under any circumstances, that Jana or Bradley Hocevar would have known it was the pool guy,” said Gaultieri, who repeatedly said he believed Hocevar’s actions were reasonable, especially as to the first two shots fired.
Polek suffered only superficial injuries from shrapnel and broken glass, the sheriff said.
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