ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The Orange County Sheriff’s Office Citizens Advisory Committee will meet Thursday night to discuss the office’s use of force policy, in the weeks since an on-duty deputy shot and killed Salaythis Melvin.

What You Need To Know

  • OCSO committee to discuss use of force policy 

  • Calls for change following Salaythis Melvin’s killing

  • The meeting is set for 6 p.m.

The meeting is set for Thursday at 6 p.m. via Zoom video conference.  

Deputy James Montiel shot Melvin, 22, in the back on August 7, claiming he believed the man was going to kill him. Montiel told investigators Melvin turned his head to face him as he ran off, with his hand on a gun in his waistband.

Body camera footage from arriving deputies shows Melvin running away at the Florida Mall parking lot before he is shot in the back. Deputies were in the area to arrest another man, Vanshawn Sands, 19, who was wanted in connection to a shooting in Pine Hills last month.

Jarvis Grace, a member of the Black Lives Matter movement from Sanford, believes the deadly use of force was unjust:

“That’s the unfortunate part about it, because if he was not committing an offense or a crime, or he was not being detained or under arrest, who’s to say that this officer can be the judge and the jury,” said Grace.

Melvin was charged with aggravated assault on an officer before he died. 

Grace wants stricter language in the department’s use of force policy, including language mandating the use of body cameras.

The only footage that has been released by the sheriff’s office so far is from arriving deputies, not the deputy who fired the deadly shot.

But Russell Kilgore, a member of the advisory committee, believes the use of force policy is outlined clearly enough, and that making it too specific could leave room for loopholes.

“The policy is there, it’s just got to be enforced more and people being held accountable,” Kilgore explained.