ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A 911 call about a suspicious person in the yard of a South St. Augustine home on Wednesday morning ended in a deadly deputy-involved shooting, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
Director Howard “Skip” Cole, who runs the county’s Criminal Investigations Division, said deputies were called to a home in the area of 1st Street and Brainard Drive around 5:40 a.m.
The area is about half a mile east of U.S. 1 near Moultrie Creek.
Cole said a woman had called 911 to report a suspicious person in her backyard. The woman told the dispatcher she thought it was a neighbor she had previously had issues with.
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When deputies arrived 10 minutes later, they found a 45-year-old man in front of the caller’s home holding a handgun.
Cole said the events unfolded very quickly as the man refused to drop the gun or follow the deputies’ commands, and they fired at him.
He died at the scene.
The deputies were not injured.
Cole said the agency has had at least a dozen calls about the man’s behavior in the neighborhood over the last five months.
Detectives are speaking with multiple witnesses, and the names of the man and the deputies involved will be released later.