FLORIDA – According to local media in the area, an innocent man is dead after Sheriff’s deputies in Lake County, Florida got the wrong address in pursuit of a murder suspect, barged into a man’s house at 1:30am, and shot him in his own house even though they did not announce they were the police.
TV station WESH reported today that Andrew Lee Scott, age 26, was killed when sheriff’s deputies mistakenly went to his house late at night, mistakenly thinking that they had the address of a murder suspect instead. The murder suspect had parked his motorcycle in a parking space in a parking lot front of Scott’s apartment building and although deputies did not see him go in that particular unit, they assumed that Scott’s apartment was the suspect’s home.
When deputies entered the home, they said that Scott had a gun held in his hands, possibly for his own defense to ward off an unannounced intruder at such a late hour. Scott did not shoot at the deputies, but they shot and killed him as they entered the home.
Witnesses told the TV station that deputies fire four times.
“The occupant of that apartment was pointing a gun at deputies, and that’s when we opened fire and killed him,” Lt. John Herrell of the department in an interview with the TV station.
Officials confirmed with the TV station that they did not identify themselves before entering the home. Such tactics are often used where suspects are considered armed and dangerous or if there is a possibility that suspects might try to destroy evidence.
Despite the time of night they entered his home, the fact that Scott did not fire his weapon, and the fact that they got the wrong address, the Sheriff’s department said they believed that Scott’s death was clearly his own fault, and the deputies were not to blame.
“The bottom line is you point a gun at a deputy or police officer, you’re going to get shot,” said Lt. Herrell in a different video interview that appeared nationally on Yahoo News.
