Body cam video captures officers de-escalating potential shooting in Stuart
By: Body camera video captures the moment officers were able to de-escalate what could have been a shooting in Stuart.
The Stuart Police Department said on Monday, officers were dispatched to 937 SE Spruce Avenue in response to an assault.
In the arrest report, an officer approached 29-year-old Carrell Gallon at the scene. That's when Gallon pulled a pistol from his waistband.
The second person involved in the argument was unarmed. The officer said he pulled his service weapon and demanded Gallon to drop his gun before the situation could escalate.
Officers said Gallon's focus was on the other person as he attempted to escalate the verbal dispute. In the video, three officers instructed Gallon several times to drop his gun, and he complied. Gallon was apprehended, and the pistol was retrieved without further incident.
According to Stuart police Chief Joseph Tumminelli, officers go through de-escalation training all the time, and his three officers did a great job protecting everyone out there.
Gallon is the grandson of Mattie Jones, the 73-year-old woman who was fatally shot on Thanksgiving night in 2022 while she was watching TV inside her home.
"This is hard for us," Gallon's sister, Raven Jolly said. She said this latest incident happened right outside their late grandmother's home.
"He had a gun on him because he is registered. My family’s been going through a lot. My cousin just got jumped by everybody in the neighborhood. It’s no telling what somebody could’ve did to him," she said.
Whatever his justification, police say this certainly could've been a tragic event. But the officers' decisions in this critical incident, allowed everyone to come out of this situation uninjured.
Gallon was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon and improper exhibition of a firearm.