A mother’s call to the Ocala Police Department asking for help in locating her mentally ill son on Sunday resulted in the man being shot during a chaotic incident in which police said he attacked them with bear spray and threatened them with a knife, officials said Monday.
David Laperriere, 23, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was in serious condition at HCA Hospital after having “several surgeries,” with more planned next week, a police official said.
The incident began midday Sunday, soon after police arrived at The Vines Hospital, a mental health facility, and were told by Sharon Pittsley that her son, Laperriere, had left the facility and was walking down a road erratically, according to an arrest affidavit.
Pittsley also told them that he suffers from schizophrenia and was making statements suggesting “suicide by cop,” the document stated.
Pittsley had brought her son to The Vines the night before after he had been acting erratically, Ocala Deputy Police Chief Lou Biondi said at a news conference held Monday.
Sgt. Sean Young and Ofc. Luis Camacho soon found Laperriere walking along the 5500 block of Southwest 27th Avenue. He was holding a black fixed blade knife in his right hand and a large can of “bear deterrent spray” in his left hand, the arrest report stated. Bear spray contains a higher concentration of capsaicin and has a spray range of up to 40 feet, it added.
Young and Camacho asked Laperriere to drop the knife and spray so they could talk with him.
He refused to comply and, according to body camera footage, waved both items in the air and repeatedly said, “Today is the day I die.”
Soon, Ofc. Ferdinand Collazo arrived on the scene. Laperriere continued to ignore their repeated commands, and then began to spray the bear spray at the two officers. Camacho responded by using his Taser against Laperriere, and Collazo fired a non-lethal projectile that hit him in the leg. However, both attempts to subdue the man failed, body camera video shows.
Laperriere then began walking toward the two officers, the knife in his right hand, while still spraying with his left hand, directly exposing them to the chemical, the arrest report states.
Due to the active deadly threat, Young fired multiple rounds from his police weapon, striking the defendant. An officer rendered aid to Laperriere until EMS arrived to transport him to HCA.
“The officers did everything they [could] to de-escalate as trained,” Biondi said, “until the actions of the subject force us to use lethal force.”
The sergeant and officers suffered minor injuries from the bear spray, Biondi said.
Young was placed on administrative leave while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates the use of force, the deputy chief said.
Camacho was one ofthree Ocala police officers who in January were cleared by prosecutors in the shooting death of a man in a home improvement store parking lot last year.
Laperriere faces two counts of aggravated battery and one count of aggravated assault, and was being held without bond and under 24-hour surveillance at HCA.
The incident wasn’t Laperriere’s first encounter with police. In 2019, he was charged with a felony for breaking into an empty duplex on Christine Mills and Michael Monteleone’s property. They found him rifling through their daughters’ old toys, according to the arrest report.
When Monteleone asked what he was doing, Laperriere mumbled a string of incoherent apologies, unable to speak. Later, police found him stripped down to his boxers at a Texaco gas station. He said he didn’t know where his clothes went when the police asked. They found nearby abandoned clothing containing Laperriere’s driver’s license in a garbage can.
The couple declined to press charges. “When you see a young person like that,” Mills told WUFT News on Monday, “you want them to get the help that they need.”
Attempts to reach Laperriere’s family for comment were unsuccessful.