It was Lake's second deputy-involved shooting of the year — both in a matter of days. On Wednesday, deputies shot and killed an ex-con accused of stalking and murdering a clerk at an auto-parts store in Eustis. In 2011, there were two such shootings in Lake.
On Sunday, deputies were looking for Jonathan Brown, 31, a suspect in an attempted murder. Brown and Anthony Michael Rodriguez, 25, were suspects in a beating that happened less than an hour earlier, according to an arrest affidavit.
Scott worked for two years at Hungry Howie's Pizza in Leesburg, where he was known to joke around and could be trusted to run the store, said store owner Pat Casalaspro, a friend of Scott's. Scott worked late Saturday, he said, and had plans to watch movies with his live-in girlfriend that night. He said Scott probably didn't know who was outside and answered the door holding a gun.
"I guarantee you he was trying to protect himself," Casalaspro said, adding that Scott was not confrontational.
But the key was Scott pointed a gun at the deputy, sheriff's spokesman Lt. John Herrell said. The deputy then responded with deadly force.
The Florida Civil Rights Association in Orlando said it plans to look into the shooting to determine if deputies used excessive force. J. Willie David III, association president, called for the Sheriff's Office to adopt a policy "that requires its deputies to identify themselves when attempting to gain access to an individual's home."
Deputies were led to Scott's door at the Blueberry Hill II apartment complex off County Road 44 after spotting a nearby motorcycle that one of the suspects was believed to have used to escape from the scene of the beating. Deputies knocked on the nearest door but did not announce their presence because they felt it would have been more "tactically advantageous," Herrell said.
He said deputies showed up to the apartment in marked patrol cars, but their sirens were not activated.
Brown was later found in a nearby building and arrested on a charge of attempted murder. Rodriguez was arrested in a traffic stop and faces a felony battery charge.
Scott had been arrested in Orange County on a pair of drug charges in 2004 and criminal mischief in 2006, but in adjudication was withheld in each case, records show. Inside his apartment, deputies did find marijuana and drug paraphernalia, but no other weapons, Herrell said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting. Agency spokeswoman Susie Murphy said there was one deputy-involved shooting in Lake in 2009 and none in 2010 before the spate starting last year.
"It comes in phases — sometimes we don't have any in months," she said. No deputies were found of any wrongdoing in the previous shootings, she said.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario