ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A 911 call from one St. Augustine neighbor reporting a suspicious person in her backyard turned into a deadly deputy-involved shooting this morning.
“I just assumed they were doing a drill at The Shrine Club or something, actually happened,” said Britteny Tierney, who lives right around the corner from where the shooting happened.
According to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, the scene began around 5:40 a.m. Wednesday morning, when another neighbor called 911 about a suspicious man in her backyard. When deputies arrived, investigators say they found the man with a handgun, standing outside the neighbors’ home.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office says they then gave verbal commands to the man, and when he refused to cooperate, two deputies fired shots, killing the 45-year-old suspect.
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Investigators also say they’ve had at least a dozen calls just in the last few months complaining that the suspect was causing issues in the neighborhood.
“The only one I personally know is just our neighbor over here,” Tierney said. “He had come into their yard one night, and I don’t even know if he posed threats, but it was an uncomfortable situation for his wife.”
Tierney told Action News Jax on Wednesday that her heart and prayers go out to the family of the man killed, but she also said she now feels safer in the neighborhood.
“Now that he’s not here, I feel safer allowing our kids to pop outside if we’re not out here the whole time, but before I would never want you know my kids to be out here by themselves,” Tierney said.
Police are not identifying the suspect at this time, and also didn’t have exact details on the sequence of events that caused deputies to open fire. This is still an ongoing investigation.
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