Sarasota Police Department seeking any information the public may have that could be of assistance in the case
The Sarasota Police Department is continuing its investigation into an officer-involved shooting that occurred on Saturday, Feb. 6, in the 2400 block of Bay Street in Sarasota, the department has reported.
Just before 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 6, a news release explains, a Sarasota Police Department (SPD) patrol officer responded to that area of Bay Street after witnesses called 911 Dispatch “to report a woman screaming and shots fired in the area.”
Upon arrival, the officer “encountered Scott Tiati, 52, of Sarasota,” who was armed with a firearm, the release added. “Preliminary information suggests that Tiati shot and killed an adult female, in front of the officer as the officer was walking up to the home for the call for service,” the release pointed out.
“Tiati and the woman did know one another,” the release said. “Preliminary information suggests the victim encountered Tiati in the 2400 block of Bay Street,” the release added, and that Tiati shot the woman and her dog, killing them both. “The officer fired his duty weapon,” the release says, and Tiati died at the scene.
In a Feb. 9 update, Genevieve Judge, the public information officer for the Police Department, reported that an autopsy the District 12 Medical Examiner’s Office conducted on Tiati found that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The officer was not injured, SPD pointed out.
“Per Sarasota Police Department policy, the patrol officer who fired their duty weapon has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation continues,” the release explained. That officer has not been identified.
It was the first officer-involved shooting affecting the Sarasota Police Department since April 2018, the release added.
The name of the victim is being withheld under the guidelines of the state’s Marsy’s Law, the release noted.
Sarasota County Property Appraiser’s Office records show that Tiati owned a home located at 5808 Whistlewood Circle in Saraosta, which is just south of Webber Street and east of Honore Avenue. Bay Street is near downtown Sarasota.
The Property Appraiser Office records show Tiati purchased the property in December 2020 for $305,000. The mortgage associated with that transaction identifies Tiati as “Unmarried Man,” Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller records show.
Tiati borrowed $299,475 to pay for the house, according to a copy of a mortgage with Hancock Mortgage Partners LLC in Sugar Land, Texas.
Anyone with any information related to the case is asked to call Detective Kim Laster at 941-263-6827, leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling 941-366-TIPS; or going online at www.sarasotacrimestoppers.com.
Criminal history
During a Sarasota News Leader search of 12th Judicial Circuit Court records, it found numerous traffic charges filed against Tiati, dating from December 2002 to March 2019.
Among the more serious cases the News Leader found during its review was one of two that occurred in March 2019: Tiati was charged with one felony count of Burglary of an Unoccupied Vehicle.
The incident was reported just after 10 p.m. at 1483 Main St. in Sarasota.
The SPD complaint said that a member of the City of Sarasota’s Parking Enforcement Division — Sharon Hurskin — explained to the officer who arrived on that scene that she had just written a ticket for a vehicle that had been parked in a designated space beyond the allotted time. Hurskin told the officer that a man later identified as Tiati came up to her in an effort to prevent her giving him a ticket. She told Tiati that she already had written the ticket, so he was too late.
“Hurskin advised that as she was writing other tickets in the area, she could hear Tiati screaming and yelling obscenities at her.”
Then Hurskin advised the officer that when she returned to her vehicle, her co-worker told her that Tiati had entered the parking enforcement vehicle “and took something. When Hurskin searched the city vehicle, the complaint continued, she found that Tiati “had stolen the keys,” which later were recovered from a trash can inside a bar.
The co-worker identified Tiati as the man she had observed entering Hurskin’s city vehicle.
The officer who handled that case determined Tiati’s identity through his vehicle registration, the complaint added.
In May 2019, Tiati pleaded nolo contendere — no contest — to a first-degree misdemeanor count, Trespassing-Occupied Structure or Conveyance; and to a second-degree misdemeanor count of Larceny-Petit First Offense.
Tiati was put on probation for 12 months; ordered to take an anger management class and a theft offender class; ordered to undergo alcohol abuse evaluation and treatment; and ordered to pay court costs and fines totaling $273.
On July 24, 2019, Tiati’s probation officer signed a form attesting to the fact that Tiati had completed all the conditions of probation.
Other cases involving Tiati led to charges of Driving While License Suspended ((May 2007); Open Container of Alcohol in Vehicle (August 2008 and December 2008); driving with registration that had been expired for more than six months (December 2008); and Unlawful Speed in a Municipality (March 2019), when he was cited for driving 39 mph in a 30 mph zone on North Tamiami Trail in Sarasota.
In one case, which occurred in August 2008, a Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office deputy charged Tiati with Resisting an Officer Without Violence in conjunction with a count of driving with a license that had been expired more than four months and another count of driving with knowledge that the license was suspended.
In that situation, the complaint explained, the deputy was on routine patrol in the area of Bee Ridge Road and Shade Avenue when he ran a check on the license tag of a truck that was traveling westbound on Bee Ridge. After the deputy learned the tag had expired, he activated his emergency equipment and pulled into the lane behind the truck, the report said. The truck failed to stop; instead, it continued west on Bee Ridge for another 500 feet or so and pulled into what was then the Southgate Mall parking lot, the report added.
Still, the report noted, the truck did not stop. After the deputy used his public announcement system to order the driver to halt, the driver did so.
When the deputy reached the truck, the report continued, Tiati opened the door, so the deputy advised him to shut it and roll down the driver’s side window. After Tiati followed those directions, the report said, the deputy spotted an open container of beer in the center console.
Then, as he was speaking with Tiati, the deputy noted, “based on my training and experience, I observed that [Tiati] was possibly trying to hide something in the vehicle.”
Immediately, the deputy called for routine backup, the report said. The second officer who arrived on the scene finally used a Taser to stun Tiati after Tiati refused to show the officers his hands following’s Tiati exit from the truck and Tiati’s resisting the officers after they “assisted [him] to the ground,” the report added. (The deputies had ordered him several times to take his hands out of his pockets, the report pointed out.)
The deputies were unable to determine whether Tiati “destroyed any illegal substances,” the report said.
In that case, court records show, Tiati also pleaded “No Contest.”