Sheriff admits he killed a man when he was 14 in violent encounter outside his house but never told law enforcement officials when applying for a job

A sheriff has admitted that he killed a man when he was 14 in a violent encounter but never told law enforcement officials when applying for his job. 

In an interview with Local 10 Sunday Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony addressed a report that was published on Saturday by a watchdog news group that revealed he shot and killed a man in 1993. 

Sheriff Tony said 18-year-old Hector Rodriguez tried to kill him and his brother outside their home in an inner city neighbourhood of Philadelphia - and he responded in self-defence.

'Unfortunately, we had a dispute with him — my brother and me — in front of our home and he made threats to kill us and he literally pulled out a gun. He had no problem with shooting us right there,' Tony said in the interview yesterday.

In an interview with Local 10 Sunday Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony (pictured) addressed a report that was published on Saturday by a watchdog news group that revealed he shot and killed a man in 1993

'There was no crime, no arrest and this was considered a self-defence case, as it should have been,' he added.  

He was appointed head of the Broward Sheriff's Office in 2019 but said in the application process 'it doesn't require you to bring it up'. 

He added: 'I don't want to be some 14-year-old black kid who survived a shooting. I don't want to be someone's victim.'

Tony believes the release of the nearly three-decades old story is politically motivated because he is running for election in 2020 to keep his post as Broward County Sheriff. 

He maintains there was no arrest at the time and he was cleared of any wrongdoing as a juvenile. Reports at the time said the victim had been shot multiple times.

He said that during the 1993 incident at his home, he was quicker to grab the gun -believed to have belonged to his father - than his brother.

Tony believes the release of the nearly three-decades old story is politically motivated because he is running for election in 2020 to keep his post as Broward County Sheriff

'Under Pennsylvania law, juveniles are not arrested, they go through a petition of delinquency. It never came up on my background checks or clearances, since I was a juvenile and I didn't commit a crime, as it was self-defense,' Tony told Florida Politics. 

Rodriguez's girlfriend at the time Maritza Carrasquillo said she didn't know Tony had been acquitted of the charges.

She says she doesn't understand how someone who killed a human being could become a sheriff. 

In response, Tony said he was sympathetic to someone losing a loved one but that he has no regrets he survived a violent attack by their loved one who was trying to kill him and his brother.

In the interview he was asked if he tried to conceal the information. Tony said that he's talked about it publicly while mentoring children and has shared the story in church. He said the encounter has been a driving force for him to excel in life.