TAMPA (WFLA) – Newly-released documents, crime scene photos and 911 calls are giving a clearer picture of the day 15-year-old Bradley Hulett was shot and killed in a Tampa police officer’s home.
Hulett was spending time with three other friends after school on that fateful December night when documents revealed one of the boys used a paper clip to enter the locked bedroom of Tampa Police Officer Edwin Perez. Perez was on duty and at work at the time.
In the bedroom, the boys found a handgun with no magazine in the weapon. The friends assumed the gun was not loaded, documents say.
According to the arrest report, one of the boys said “let’s go scare Bradley” after removing the handgun out of the holster located on top of a small cabinet in the master bedroom.
One of the teens told deputies that before the shooting, he heard Hulett say, “oh, that’s real.”
A frantic call to 911 just before 4 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2019 revealed what happened in the home that afternoon.
“What’s happening?” the 911 operator asked.
A teenager on the other end of the call said, “We didn’t think the gun was loaded and someone accidentally got shot.”
When the 911 operator asked if the person was awake, the teen said, “no, they’re not responding.”
As the 911 operator dispatched EMS and deputies to the home, she asked the teen what happened, who got shot and when it happened.
“One of my friends,” the teen said. “Like ten seconds ago. Please, please we need an ambulance right now.”
During the call, one teen can be heard telling others to “keep pressure on it.” Deputies responding to the scene reported the boys were using a towel to keep pressure on the gunshot wound while the 911 operator continued to ask for details during the tense moments.
“There was a gun in one of my friend’s dad’s rooms and we didn’t think it was loaded,” the teen on the call said. “There was one in the chamber and it went off and hit one of my friends.”
Hulett was taken to the Brandon Regional Hospital but did not survive the single gunshot wound to his head.
A responding deputy to the home wrote in a report:
“The firearm did not have a magazine within the magazine well, and after searching the residence, a magazine was not located for the firearm. There was no safe within the master bedroom area. I noted what appeared to be an empty black badge holder.”
The deputy also noted in his report a strong odor of marijuana in the home.
“As I entered the residence I could smell the odor of burnt marijuana, which became stronger as I progressed into the living room,” he wrote.
Christopher Bevan, 15, was determined to be the teen who fired the single shot that killed Hulett. He has been charged with manslaughter and will be prosecuted as an adult.
Officer Perez was suspended for one week from the Tampa Police Department for leaving an unsecured and loaded weapon in his home.
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