Court petition filed to determine capacity of Robert Goolsby in officer-involved shooting case
The 70-year-old Sarasota resident who advanced on a Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office deputy with a knife on Nov. 4, resulting in the deputy’s shooting the man, entered a plea of “Not Guilty” with the 12th Judicial Circuit Court, waived his arraignment and demanded a jury trial, The Sarasota News Leader has learned.
Assistant Public Defender Claudia Rojas Sousa filed those documents with the court. Robert Glenn Goolsby, of 5050 Central Sarasota Parkway, Apt. 108, was charged with Aggravated Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer with intent to kill, court records show.
However, on Nov. 18, the News Leader read in other court records, a formal petition was filed to determine Goolsby’s capacity to face the charge.\
As is standard in such situations, the court documents are protected from public view.
Additionally, on Nov. 19, a petition filed with the court sought the appointment of a temporary guardian for Goolsby. Those records also are unavailable to the public.
After the Nov. 4 shooting, Goolsby told officers on the scene that he wanted to die because his wife had died earlier that day, his Probable Cause Affidavit says.
He was arrested just after 9 a.m. that day outside his residence, which is within the Saratoga Place Apartments at Palmer Ranch, the Probable Cause Affidavit notes.
Records in the case showed that he was being held without bond.
The affidavit says that when Goolsby called 911 about 8:54 a.m. on Nov. 4, he reported that he was “behind a pile of roofing material”; he did provide his name and address.
When the 911 dispatcher asked his emergency, the affidavit continues, Goolsby replied, “ ‘I’m gonna to die” [sic], and then hung up the phone.
A call for service was generated, identifying Building 7 at Saratoga Place, the affidavit adds.
When a deputy arrived at the scene, the affidavit says, he observed Goolsby in the line of woods directly across from the address Goolsby had provided in the 911 call. “He was on his knees, facing away from [the deputy], with a knife in his hand,” the affidavit continues.
The deputy “gave verbal commands for Goolsby to drop the knife and turn around, the affidavit points out. “Goolsby replied, ‘No, I’m going to die. I want to die,’ ” the affidavit adds.
The deputy continued to verbally command Goolsby to drop the knife, the affidavit says. Then Goolsby “stood up, turned, raised the knife, and approached [the deputy] in an aggressive manner,” the affidavit points out. The deputy “drew his firearm, and fearing for his life, he fired one round at Goolsby,” the affidavit adds.
“Goolsby continued to advance toward [the deputy] with the knife raised, stating, ‘I want to die,’ ” the affidavit says.
The deputy at that point fired two rounds at Goolsby, the affidavit adds, “which caused Goolsby to go down to the ground. He was then secured,” the affidavit continues, and deputies provided him first aid until paramedics with the Sarasota County Fire Department arrived on the scene.
“During a sworn video recorded statement,” the affidavit points out, the deputy “stated he believed that if he did not respond with deadly forced, Goolsby would have stabbed him.”
While the other deputies were rendering aid to Goolsby, the affidavit says, he told them, “ ‘I want to die … My wife died today … Just let me die.”
When the Fire Department personnel arrived on the scene, the affidavit adds, they transported Goolsby to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. He was expected to survive his injuries, it says.
A Nov. 5 court document indicated that Goolsby could not be released from the hospital that day for a first appearance on the charge against him.
The first supplemental document to the initial incident report, which the News Leader received through a public records request, says another deputy arrived on the scene at 9:07 a.m. That officer wrote that he ran toward the responding deputy’s vehicle after hearing “several shots fired in the wooded area on the west side of the parking lot.” That second deputy added that he called out to the responding deputy “to avoid crossfire” when approaching the location of the shots. The second deputy reported that Goolsby “appeared to have a gunshot wound to his chest.” Goolsby “was lying on the ground and the knife was located behind [the responding deputy].”
The second deputy added that he “grabbed [his] medical bag from [his] vehicle and returned to provide medical aid [to Goolsby].” A third deputy who had arrived “applied pressure using gauze until [the second deputy] retrieved a chest seal.” Yet a fourth deputy assisted the others, that supplemental report continues. They continued working on Goolsby until the paramedics arrived, that report says.
Another supplement to the original incident report, which the News Leader also received through its public records request, notes that one deputy searched for witnesses to the shooting and was unable to find any. That deputy, the document says, arrived as county paramedics were loading Goolsby into an EMS unit for transport to the hospital