St. Pete Welfare Check Turns Deadly, 48-Year-Old Dies After Struggle With Police

A routine welfare check on 5th Street North in St. Petersburg ended with a 48-year-old man dead, after police say he attacked responding officers and was taken to the ground during a struggle. Brian Michael Pepal was later found not breathing and pronounced dead at a hospital, and an independent task force is now investigating exactly what happened.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, a St. Petersburg police officer was flagged down around 10:52 a.m. by a woman asking for help for her adult stepson, who was experiencing a mental health crisis. Officers responded to conduct a welfare check at 7296 5th Street North, as first reported by Tampa Bay 28. Pepal exited the home during the encounter, and per the sheriff's office, he then attacked the officers, prompting them to defend themselves.

During the ensuing struggle, officers took Pepal to the ground, the sheriff's office said. One officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the altercation and was also taken to a hospital. Once Pepal was taken into custody, officers discovered he was not breathing, according to the same account, and began CPR before paramedics arrived on scene.

No Intentional Deadly Force, Sheriff's Office Says

Pepal was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said the force used by officers was not considered intentional deadly force. Authorities noted that Pepal had pre-existing medical conditions, though the article does not specify what those conditions were beyond that attribution.

The Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Investigative Task Force is now handling the investigation, rather than St. Petersburg police investigating their own officers. The task force was created in July 2020 through an agreement between the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and police departments in St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Pinellas Park specifically so that major-crimes detectives from partner agencies independently investigate officer use-of-force incidents. Under the task force's protocol, an independent inquiry is triggered whenever law enforcement force or physical custody results in death or severe bodily harm, regardless of whether officers intended to use lethal force, according to the sheriff's office and a report from IONTB.

Officers' Names Withheld Under Marsy's Law

The sheriff's office said the names of the officers involved will not be released until 72 hours after the incident. That delay stems from Florida's expanded Marsy's Law provisions, which took effect July 1, 2026, following a 2023 Florida Supreme Court decision on public records exemptions. Under those provisions, law enforcement agencies temporarily withhold involved officers' identities for 72 hours following a use-of-force incident, as detailed by WUSF.

The investigation remains ongoing pending autopsy results. The medical examiner will determine Pepal's official cause of death through that autopsy. In Florida in-custody death inquiries, the Medical Examiner's Office typically conducts toxicology, cardiac, and anatomical evaluations to distinguish between positional asphyxia, excited delirium, underlying medical trauma, or acute cardiac events — a process that can take several weeks, per the sheriff's office and IONTB.

Second Fatal Mental Health Call in Two Months

This is not the first time this year that a mental health call in St. Petersburg has ended in death. On June 28, St. Petersburg police officers responding to a mental health call fatally shot 37-year-old Kasey Sedlock at a residence on Pershing Street NE after less-lethal Taser deployments failed to disarm him, a case that was also investigated by the same task force. St. Petersburg police created their Community Assistance and Life Liaison, or CALL, program in February 2021 in partnership with Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services specifically to divert non-violent mental health 911 calls to social workers instead of armed officers, according to the Vera Institute. It's unclear from available reporting whether that program factored into this welfare check, which began when an officer was flagged down directly rather than dispatched through 911.

The task force has been activated repeatedly across the county in recent months. In March, it investigated a fatal SWAT standoff in Pinellas Park after 39-year-old military veteran Ryan LeCompte was shot while experiencing a mental health crisis, a case captured on SWAT video. The task force has also investigated sheriff's deputies' own use of force, including a November 2024 incident in which three Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies shot a domestic dispute suspect who ran toward them armed with a handgun in St. Petersburg.

Under Florida Statute 784.07 and Statute 843.01, committing physical battery against a law enforcement officer or resisting an officer with violence is classified as a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in state prison. No charges have been announced in connection with Pepal's death, and the investigation continues as detectives await the autopsy results that could clarify what role, if any, his pre-existing medical conditions played in his death.