A Lake County sheriff’s deputy was killed and two other deputies were wounded Friday night in what Sheriff Peyton Grinnell described as an ambush at a home near Eustis.
During a 1:30 a.m. news conference on Saturday, which was broadcast live by Orlando TV stations, Grinnell explained that the case began around 8 p.m. Friday night, when officers responded to a report of a public disturbance at a home on County Road 439, north of State Road 44.
People in that home sent officers to a disturbance at another home nearby. Officers saw what appeared to be a door that had been kicked in, so they entered the home to conduct a welfare check.
They were ambushed, Grinnell said, and “met with a hail of gunfire.”
One officer was shot and trapped inside the home. A second officer retreated and quickly formed a rescue team, which reentered the home. More shots were fired, the sheriff said.
One officer was shot in the shoulder and did not require surgery. He was in stable condition early Saturday. A second officer was shot multiple times in the armpit and abdomen and was in serious/critical condition following surgery early Saturday.
The third officer, the man who was in custody, died.
“It was a very violent scene,” the sheriff said. Two men inside the home were killed and a third was injured.
Grinnell did not release the names of the officers or the names of the other people who were in the home. The sheriff said the officer who died was a veteran law enforcement officer, a military veteran and a longtime employee of the agency. This is the first time since October 2005 that the Lake County Sheriff’s Office has lost an employee in the line of duty.
The rescue team consisted not only of officers, but also of tactical equipment that was used to break down walls in a desperate attempt to save the officer who was trapped in the house.
“We tore the house apart,” Grinnell said. After securing the scene, officers found multiple weapons inside, including handguns and long guns.
The sheriff said he was not sure how the two suspects died in the home. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating, as is standard in such cases. Several other agencies were on the scene, including the FBI and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Marion Sheriff Billy Woods and District Attorney Bill Gladson were at the crime scene with Grinnell late Friday night and Saturday morning.
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: One officer killed, two others shot and wounded in Lake County, Florida
