Florida sheriff's office releases video of fatal deputy-involved shooting
MELBOURNE, Fla. - On August 30th, a traffic stop of a vehicle along U.S. 192 just west of Interstate 95 ended with a deputy injured and a suspect dead. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said that the occupant inside the vehicle shot at deputies, who returned fire.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office shared a video of the incident on Thursday afternoon.
"I wanted to give everyone an update this evening on the deputy-involved shooting that took place Monday, August 30th, when two of our deputies were ambushed by an extremely violent career criminal during a traffic stop in west Melbourne," Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in the video. "The attack and ambush was perpetuated by a violent, career criminal, with a history of 40 charges for crimes including drug trafficking, aggravated assault while discharging a firearm, battery on a law enforcement officer, and attempted first-degree felony murder."
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Sheriff Ivey said that the man also had prior convictions for robbery with a firearm, failing to register as a career offender, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, resisting arrest with violence, possession of controlled substances, and various probation violations.
"Even worse and more disgusting, is that this career criminal — whose name doesn’t even deserve mentioning — was actually out on bond with active warrants for additional felony drug trafficking cases, where he could attempt to kill our deputies when he should have been safely locked behind bars, where he couldn’t victimize another citizen or innocent bystander," he explained while stating that he wants answers for why a man with the record he has was allowed out on bond.
"But for now, I’m just extremely thankful that our deputies are safe and that the suspect is no longer on this planet, where he could put someone else’s life in peril," Sheriff Ivey added.
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The entire traffic stop was captured on two separate dash cameras.
"As you will see in the video that I am about to show, the suspect was the initial aggressor as he concealed his weapon until exiting the vehicle and immediately firing upon our deputies with a pistol-grip style rifle in an attempt to take their lives and avoid arrest," Sheriff Ivey said before showing the video, which he also warned is extremely violent and graphic. He shows the video in its entirety and then afterwards, breaks it down to explain what is happening and why the deputies complete the actions that they do.
"Let there be no doubt, this individual got exactly what he deserved. And to those out there that might be foolish enough to ask why we shot him so many times, the answer is simple: evil can never be dead enough," Sheriff Ivey said after the initial viewing of the dash camera video. He went on to break down the incident while explaining what was happening and why the deputies reacted the way they did.
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