LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – The Lake County sheriff’s deputy who shot a stabbing suspect on Sunday did not have a body-worn camera activated when the incident happened.
Timotheus Reed was killed by a deputy after investigators say they responded to a stabbing along with Leesburg Police in the 2400 block on Montclair Road around 6 a.m.
Investigators say they were told the alleged suspect ran. A deputy found Reed a short time later and shot him during an encounter, officials said. Details about the encounter itself were not released, though. It’s not known what led to the shooting.
The sheriff’s office said the unnamed deputy, who is on administrative leave while the case is investigated, never turned the blue lights on in their vehicle when they pulled up a short distance from the scene. Turning on the blue lights would have activated the deputy’s body camera.
[WATCH: New video shows aftermath of deadly Leesburg deputy shooting]
“He simply pulled up to the scene and was quickly pointed in the direction where Mr. Reed had gone,” said Capt. John Herrell in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement was released in response to questions about whether body-camera footage that was released on Monday had been edited because it did not show the shooting.
That footage only showed the aftermath of the shooting, with first responders appearing to treat Reed at the scene.
“The starting point in the footage that was released is the same starting point as what we have in the original footage, and we have automated audit trails that show no such editing took place,” Herrell wrote.
Protesters poured into the Lake County Sheriff’s Office this afternoon, speaking out against the deadly shooting of Timotheus Reed Sunday.
Earlier this week, News 6 spoke to a friend who says Reed came to his house asking for help before he was shot.
“Whenever I came outside, there was nobody else here — just him and the cops. I never heard of him being violent like that,” said the friend, Timothy Babinec.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office says an autopsy shows Reed suffered one gunshot wound to the left side of his abdomen.
A knife was found near where the encounter took place.
The deputy who shot Reed has been placed on administrative leave pending a review of the incident and an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.