MY TAKE
I want you to watch the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office bodycam before you read another word. It is publicly released. It is real. And it shows something most people will never see: a deputy get shot, lose his gun, hit the ground, and then pull out his tourniquet and save his own life while the fight is still happening around him.
I follow the evidence wherever it leads and I do not make excuses for bad shootings. This is not a bad shooting. This is a deputy doing his job under the worst possible circumstances, trained to the point where his hands know what to do even when his brain is processing the fact that he just got shot.
Here is the full picture, watch the bodycam:
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE DEPUTIES ARRIVED
March 9, 2026. Around noon. Bruce Parks and his ex-wife Michele Violette were on a property owned by Parks’s father-in-law at the corner of Davista Avenue and Sawtell Street in New Port Richey, Florida. They were using a lawnmower and wood chipper to clear the lot. Their own land. Routine work.
Aaron Rodriguez, 32, lived directly across the street. For reasons that remain unclear, he walked over and started yelling at them. According to the arrest affidavit, Rodriguez was spotted hiding in the bushes, stalking the victims. He was armed with a black semiautomatic handgun equipped with what appeared to be a suppressor.
Parks called 911 and stayed on the line.
THE 911 CALL — WHAT THE RECORDING CAPTURED
About five minutes into the call, Rodriguez came back outside. Parks can be heard on the recording screaming, “Don’t shoot.” Nine to ten gunshots ring out. Parks told the 911 dispatcher that Rodriguez had shot him in the head and that he was dying. Then the call went silent.
Parks was found dead in a ditch near a mailbox. He had been shot multiple times.
Violette attempted to flee. Rodriguez closed to approximately five feet and shot her twice in the abdomen. She ran to a nearby home and collapsed in a neighbor’s doorway. She was transported to Bayonet Point Hospital and survived.
When deputies arrived, one victim was dead at the scene and a second victim was shot and fleeing. The shooter was still in the area — across the street, inside his garage, still armed.
WHAT YOU SEE ON THE BODYCAM
Three deputies approached Rodriguez’s garage: a K9 handler in the lead, a deputy with a ballistic shield, and a deputy carrying a long gun. Textbook formation.
Rodriguez was standing in the open garage, still holding the handgun. Deputies issued multiple commands to drop the weapon. He refused every one.
Then you see it happen in real time.
A shot rings out. The K9 handler — the lead deputy — is hit. His gun is knocked out of his hand by the impact. He goes down.
Watch what he does next. Lying on the ground, shot, gun gone, with the suspect still a threat — he reaches for his tourniquet and applies it to his own wound. His K9 partner positions itself between him and the threat, standing guard. The other two deputies do not stop. They press forward into the garage and neutralize Rodriguez.
The deputy survived with non-life-threatening injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. The K9 was uninjured. Rodriguez was shot in the leg, hip, shoulder, and head. He was detained and transported to a hospital.
MY ASSESSMENT: JUSTIFIED — AND IT IS NOT CLOSE
Rodriguez murdered Bruce Parks during an active 911 call. He shot Michele Violette twice at close range as she tried to escape. He retained the weapon, retreated to his garage, refused multiple lawful commands to disarm, and shot the lead deputy when approached.
Every element of the legal standard for deadly force is present and documented on tape. There was an active, immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to the deputies, to Violette, and to anyone else in that residential neighborhood. The force was reasonable, necessary, and lawful.
FDLE is conducting the investigation into the deputy-involved shooting per standard Florida protocol. The deputies who fired have been placed on paid administrative leave per policy. That process is working exactly as designed. This shooting clears.
SHERIFF NOCCO — SAID EXACTLY WHAT NEEDED TO BE SAID
Sheriff Chris Nocco held a press conference within hours of the incident and did not hedge. He said:
If you put your hand on something hot like a boiling pot, your hand is going to burn. If you play with glass, it is going to cut. If you point a gun at a Pasco deputy, you are going to get shot. There are no apologies. There is no sympathy. He got shot.
That is a sheriff doing his job. No pre-emptive apologies. No hedging for an audience that has not even started demanding them. A man who murdered a neighbor during a 911 call, shot a second victim fleeing for her life, and then shot the deputy who came to stop him got exactly what that chain of decisions produces. Nocco said it plainly and he was right.
He also kept the victims at the front of his remarks throughout the press conference. Bruce Parks is dead. Michele Violette is recovering. Their lives were changed permanently by one individual’s actions. That is the right call from a leader.
THE CHARGES
Rodriguez faces first-degree premeditated murder, two counts of first-degree attempted premeditated murder, and discharging a firearm into an occupied structure. All charges carry no bond. A judge set a pretrial status hearing for the following week to determine if Rodriguez — who remained unconscious at the time — is medically fit to face proceedings.
The evidence is not in dispute. The 911 recording, the arrest affidavit, and the bodycam footage are all consistent and corroborating. This case goes in one direction.
Watch the bodycam. That deputy hit the ground in the middle of a gunfight, treated himself, and let his partners finish the job. He did not ask to be in that situation. He was there because a man murdered his neighbor and somebody had to go stop it.
That is the job. Most people will never understand what it actually looks like until they see it on video. Now you can.
