ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Orange County deputy shot and killed a man who charged at them with a knife on Saturday afternoon, according to Sheriff John Mina.
Sheriff Mina said during a news conference that deputies responded to a home on North Ortman Drive around 3:30 p.m. in response to a man in a mental health crisis who was not taking his medication and was “acting erratically in the street and breaking things."
Deputies said that when they arrived at the home, they spoke to the man’s father who advised that his adult son was in the bedroom and had a knife.
According to Mina, deputies were in the hallway of the home for about five minutes trying to speak with the man when he “came out very violently” and within a second, tried to stab one of the deputies.
[Watch the full press conference with Sheriff Mina below:]
“He then grabbed the deputy’s gun and tried to stab the deputy again. It’s at that point our deputy used his service weapon, striking the man several times," Mina said.
The man was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, Mina said. He was identified as 30-year-old Terry Washington Jr.
Mina said that during the incident, the deputy fell backwards into a bathtub and that the tub cut the back of the deputy’s head, but he is expected to be OK.
The deputy was also taken to the hospital and treated for lacerations on the back of his head.
The incident marks the second deputy-involved shooting after an Orange County deputy shot an armed man who had punched him in the face multiple times behind a discount store in Pine Hills earlier on Saturday.
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“This just shows the community what our deputies deal with on an everyday basis. And unfortunately, you know, I’ve been doing this for 34 years and I don’t think we ever had two deputy involved or two officer involved shootings in one day," Mina said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting and turn their findings over to the state attorney’s office. The deputy has been placed on administrative leave.