PALM SHORES, Fla. – A Brevard County deputy fatally shot a knife-wielding man who damaged a home early Wednesday in Palm Shores, sheriff’s officials said.
The shooting happened around 3:25 a.m. in the area of Palm Circle in Palm Shores, which sits along the Indian River.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were called to a home because a man was acting erratically. At one point, the 911 caller locked herself inside a bathroom in an attempt to remain safe, officials said.
[WATCH BELOW: Father of the man shot by deputies speaks on camera]
A deputy met the caller outside the home and approached the front door in an attempt to contact the man, who “appeared (while) holding a knife and quickly advanced toward the deputy,” sheriff’s officials said.
“RP [reporting person] advised that person, Tyler, is going crazy, threatening suicide,” a dispatcher reported.
A deputy met the caller outside the home and approached the front door in an attempt to contact the man, who “appeared (while) holding a knife and quickly advanced toward the deputy,” sheriff’s officials said.
“The subject opened the front door with a knife raised over his head... putting our deputy’s life in danger,” Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a video posted to Facebook.
Ivey said since the deputy’s life was in danger, he fired multiple rounds and struck the man, who was taken to a hospital and later died.
“Our deputy is safe. He took the action he needed to take in order to protect himself and the 911 caller,” Ivey said. “Our deputy was put in harm’s way, feared for his life and took the action necessary to neutralize and eliminate the threat.”
A deputy was heard on dispatch recordings reporting firing shots.
“He came at me with a knife,” the deputy reported. Call BCFR, he just collapsed."
The name of the man and deputy have not been released.
The father of the man who died, Kevin Patterson, talked to reporters Wednesday while collecting his son’s things from the house.
Patterson said his 21-year-old son, Tyler, had a history of mental illness and was taken out of the house multiple times before to get treatment for Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“They usually take him real gentle,” Patterson said. “He comes back three or four days.”
Patterson told reporters his son was shot three times.
“I don’t know what he had, but somehow he got out of the house, which he never does, and he got right there, and all hell broke loose,” the father said.
The deputy was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, which is standard procedure.
Brevard deputies still don’t wear body cameras so any possible video of the confrontation would have to come from either dash cameras or home surveillance in the neighborhood.
Melbourne police assisted BCSO in the incident, Ivey said.
No other details have been released.