CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – An armed man suspected of attempting to carry out a robbery late Sunday was shot and killed after confronting Brevard County sheriff's deputies near a Cape Canaveral apartment complex, officials said.
The unidentified deputy was not injured, officials reported.
The shooting happened about 8:20 p.m. Sunday at the Palms East apartment complex near Caroline Street. A witness called police dispatchers at 911 moments before to report a robbery attempt, alerting deputies. Deputies arrived minutes later and spotted the armed man a short distance from the site of the attempted heist.
"The suspect turned on our deputies with a firearm ... he is deceased," said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey in a news conference at the scene.
"It was a very solid job by our team. Our deputy felt his life was in danger," Ivey said.
Paramedics were at the site to treat the wounded man, who was reportedly shot in the upper body.
Crime scene investigators converged on the scene late Sunday as a portion of the complex was roped off by deputies. The sheriff's deputy who fired on the suspect was placed on administrative leave with pay, which is protocol for such cases.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents were also at the scene. The state agency routinely investigates officer-involved shootings. The state attorney's office will review FDLE's findings for a final ruling on whether deadly force was justifiable.
The shooting happened on the day two other deputy-involved shootings took place in Central Florida. One was in Gifford, just south of Sebastian, where a woman was killed and a deputy injured in an early morning drug raid.
The other occurred in Volusia County, where officers in DeLand were forced to fatally shoot a man Sunday evening after he refused to drop his gun following a high-speed chase.