Richard Tribou
Orlando Sentinel
One Lake County sheriff’s deputy was killed responding to a call in Eustis on Friday night while two more deputies suffered gunshot wounds, according to Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell.
There is no ongoing threat to the public, the sheriff said.
The sheriff gave a press conference overnight, posted on Fox 35 News, detailing the incident that began about 8 p.m. near Brookside Drive.
Two deputies responded to a call from the neighborhood, and were alerted to a nearby home where they found the back door kicked in and they could hear a disturbance, the sheriff said.
“When the deputies entered the home, there was a lot of gunfire where one of the deputies was struck. The backup deputy that was there with him was able to retreat out of the home. The first deputy was trapped inside of the home,” he said.
Several deputies then assembled and formed a rescue team to get to the struck deputy who was still inside the home, he said.
“They were just met with a hail of gunfire, a lot of gunfire where another deputy sheriff was struck at that time,” he said.
They retreated and formed a SWAT team, and a third deputy was struck at some point during the incident, the sheriff said.
Of the three deputies who were shot, one was killed, while one was struck multiple times, underwent surgery and “was in serious, critical condition,” Grinnell said. The last was shot in the shoulder and is in stable condition.
Two of the people inside the home have died, the sheriff said, and one was transported to an area hospital. He did not know if the pair inside the home died by sheriff’s office return fire or if it was a murder-suicide.
The names of the deputies involved were not released, but Grinnell said the deputy who was killed had been with the sheriff’s office for many years. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting.
This story will be updated.
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