Advertisement

Hernando deputy shoots and kills man who was firing gun at him, sheriff says

The deputy was responding to a domestic situation when a man started firing at him through a window, the sheriff says.
 
Check tampabay.com for the latest breaking news and updates.
Check tampabay.com for the latest breaking news and updates. [ Times ]
Published Feb. 1, 2020|Updated Feb. 1, 2020

A Hernando County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man who was firing on him Saturday afternoon.

Sheriff Al Nienhuis said the deputy was responding to a 911 call at about 2:30 p.m. in which someone reported that a man was threatening family members with a gun, and at one point had shot someone in the home.

The deputy arrived at the home, which is on Golf Club Lane in the Silverthorn subdivision of Spring Hill, when the man inside the house started firing at him through a window.

The deputy took cover in a neighbor’s garage and the man came out of the house. The deputy and the man exchanged fire and the man was hit and killed. The deputy had minor scrapes from taking cover, the sheriff said.

Nienhuis said the man who was killed was in his mid-20s and may have lived at the home. His name was not released. The family member who was shot was taken by helicopter to a local hospital. His name and condition were not released.

The deputy, whose name also wasn’t released, will be placed on paid leave, which is routine in shooting cases, while an investigation is ongoing.

“It’s really by the grace of God that he wasn’t hurt,” Nienhuis said of the deputy.