Jason Frederico tells Inside Edition his biggest fear was “either I was going to get shot and my daughter witnessed it or she made a faulty move if she wasn’t doing the right thing.”
A father and daughter were pulled over at gunpoint after deputies mistakenly thought the car they were in was stolen.
Released video shows deputies in Pinellas County, Florida pulling over Jason Frederico with guns drawn after believing his car was stolen. Seven squad cars were at the scene. Authorities also ordered his daughter, 16-year-old Camryn, out of the car. Frederico told officers Camryn has epilepsy and the flashing squad car lights could trigger a seizure.
Frederico tells Inside Edition his biggest fear was “either I was going to get shot and my daughter witnessed it or she made a faulty move if she wasn’t doing the right thing.”
It turned out that the deputy who performed the traffic stop made a typo when he entered the vehicle’s license plate into the computer. He turned the letter “Y” into the number “7.” The plate came back as stolen out of New Mexico.
Body camera footage showed the moment the deputy realized his mistake. The deputy chuckled and said, “Well that sucks.”
Fellow officers expressed fury over the mistake. “You could’ve got somebody killed,” one officer said.
“If Jason would’ve made one wrong move or if the daughter would’ve made one wrong move, either one or both of them could have gotten shot at any time,” Frederico’s attorney TJ Grimaldi tells Inside Edition.
The sheriff’s office tells Inside Edition they have no comment due to pending litigation.
