OKEECHOBEE — A video has surfaced online of the arrest of young man, identified as Harvey Barr Jr., accused of beating his own father and then stealing his vehicle.

The video which can be found on  YouTube  shows a man on his knees with his hands behind his back and a deputy, identified as Skylar Casian, holding the man’s wrists. A second deputy, later identified as Deputy Vincent Peterpaul, rushes up to the two men, and the deputies are seen lowering the man to the ground/on his belly. At that time, the man’s hands move from behind his back. The deputies repeatedly tell the man to put his hands behind his back

After the arrest, Sgt. Donald Ellis filed a formal report requesting disciplinary action against Peterpaul. According to Ellis, Peterpaul violated OCSO policy 308.00 by performing a Precision Immobilization Technique (P.I.T.) maneuver which is not a policy approved as a way to end a vehicle pursuit. Ellis also accused Peterpaul of violating policy 304.00 by using more force than necessary to apprehend a suspect who was initially being detained with his hands behind his back by another deputy, subsequently leading to Barr being punched and then tased.

In the arrest report, Peterpaul explains his actions by writing, “Casian #708 had Harvey with his hands behind his back, I verbally commanded Harvey to lie on his stomach and laid him flat on his stomach. While placing Harvey on his stomach, he pulled his hands from behind his back and laid on top of them. Other deputies and I gave Harvey multiple verbal commands to place his hands behind his back. All commands were ignored.”

Deputy Casian had much to say about the incident including that the victim of the carjacking was an elderly, disabled man left stranded after Barr beat him and took his vehicle. Also including what he called the elephant in the room, “Could the suspect have been handcuffed on his knees? Absolutely. We are taught to handcuff people standing, kneeling, and lying on their stomachs. With the stomach being the most advantageous of the three for law enforcement. Although the suspect could have been handcuffed kneeling, he was brought to his stomach to be handcuffed. We can sit here and speculate what the suspect could have/would have done all day. It doesn’t change how things played out. I am only able to adapt to the situation as it unfolds. I’ve worked multiple jobs prior to law enforcement. While cooking in a kitchen, if I messed up an order, I could remake it. While serving in a restaurant if I forgot to bring an item I could go back and get it. While working as a lifeguard, if I counted change back wrong I could easily correct it. While delivering food, if I forgot an item I could go back and drop it off. Not in this job, once you make a decision, most of them are final and irreversible. Once the suspect was placed on his stomach I couldn’t look to my partner and say ‘bro, we should cuff him kneeling’. At the end of the day, my partner did nothing wrong. Moving a suspect to their stomach from a kneeling position to place them under arrest doesn’t give the suspect the right to pull away and resist arrest. We have an actively resisting suspect, who fled from us during a forcible felony while also having a history of violence and illegal narcotics possession.”

In defense of his new partner, Casian added, “My partner who was ‘training’ moved to Okeechobee from a different part of Florida. He already had years of training and experience at other agencies, he was only learning the ropes of how we operate. Everybody I have trained and/or helped train is doing phenomenal in the community and are some of the most proactive we have. I’ve worked hard for this community, and the job isn’t always the prettiest on camera. But if somebody car jacks your family member, just know I’m going to do everything I can legally to bring you justice.”

As a penalty for the PIT maneuver, Peterpaul and Casian were each given two days without pay, one year probation and remedial training on vehicle ops. However, in a letter dated April 26, 2024, from Sheriff Noel Stephen to each deputy, he stated that the use of force allegation was unfounded, and they were exonerated for that action.

Sheriff Stephen said this decision was not made by him alone but through an internal investigation composed of many factors. After the investigation, it goes through the senior staff for recommendation before finally arriving on the sheriff’s desk. “Discipline was rendered on both officers,” he said.

The sheriff went on to say that the agency has instituted what they call After Action. In the training of the deputies is what is known as the SWOPE method. This helps to find the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, etc. “We take a look at what do we do good? What do we do bad? What can we do better? We use these things as a learning opportunity. We did this before all this political stuff started. We instituted all these measures on our own without being prompted.” He went on to explain the cameras were not there to micromanage but in any significant event, they are reviewed. He said, “What is on social media is a short clip, and if you don’t watch the whole thing, you can’t know for sure what happened.”

Barr was charged with carjacking without a firearm, abuse of the elderly or disabled, aggravated fleeing and eluding causing injury or damage, willful and wanton reckless driving, driving without a license and resisting an officer without violence. Bond was set at $605,000.

Barr’s case is making its way through the court system.