Detention deputy says he was wrongly fired

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - A former Flagler County detention deputy says he shouldn't have lost his job for punching an inmate who threw a walker at him.

"So much happened in that one moment. It was just so quick," Jarred Tazewell said in an exclusive interview with The News Station.

That moment was caught on camera inside the Flagler County Jail in April. Tazewell said he was tasked with taking an inmate to another part of the jail for a visit. In surveillance released by the Sheriff's Office, you can see Tazewell standing in front of the man's cell for about two minutes. He says during that time, the inmate told him he wanted to leave this world and go to another one.

"Then he said, ‘I want to go to this world, I want to take you with me.' I took that as, this guy wants to kill me," Tazewell explained.

The video shows the inmate, who officials say is disabled and has mental issues, throwing his walker at the guard. Tazewell swings.

"I closed fist struck him in the face just to get him back. Once he got on the floor, I instructed him, ‘Don't get up sir,'" Tazewell said. "It was a very unfortunate incident. I wish it hadn't happened that way but that's the way it happened. It was me defending myself, that's all. I was afraid for my life basically."

Sheriff Rick Staly says the guard's reaction was wrong.

"He did the reactive punch. We don't teach that," Staly said.  "It was very disappointing that we would have an employee react like that."

Staly said his agency conducts training for deescalation and how to properly handle inmates.

"At the end of the day, after all that happened, when someone attacks me like that, and I have my two children -- my two boys -- and my wife to worry about, I'm coming home to them. I'm a father first. I'm a family man," Tazewell said.

Tazewell was not criminally charged for punching the inmate. As for his job, he says he was given the option to resign or be fired. He says he chose to resign.