Deputies shoot, kill man after knocking on wrong door

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:08 am

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -

Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies shot and killed a man they assumed was an attempted murder suspect on Sunday, but they now know they shot the wrong man.

In the early-morning hours, deputies knocked on 26-year-old Andrew Lee Scott's door without identifying themselves as law enforcement officers. Scott answered the door with a gun in his hand.

"When we knocked on the door, the door opened and the occupant of that apartment was pointing a gun at deputies, and that's when we opened fire and killed him," Lt. John Herrell said. "Even though this subject is not the one we were looking for when he opened the door. He was pointing the gun at the deputy and if you put yourselves in the deputy's shoes. They were there to pick up someone who was wanted for an attempted homicide."

Officials said the deputies did not identify themselves because of safety reasons.

Deputies thought they were confronting Jonathan Brown, a man accused of attempted murder. Brown was spotted at the Blueberry Hills Apartment complex and his motorcycle was parked across from Andrew Scott's front door.

"It's just a bizarre set of circumstances. The bottom line is, you point a gun at a deputy sheriff or police office, you're going to get shot," Herrell said.

Residents said the unannounced knock at the door at 1:30 a.m. may be the reason why the tragedy happened.

"He was the wrong guy and he got shot and killed anyway. There's fault on both sides. I think more so on the county," Ryan Perry said. "I can understand why he [the deputy] did it, but it should have never gone down like that," Perry said.

Scott's friend, LeMac Blount said he thinks law enforcement acted too quickly.

"I think because his motorcycle was parked in front of Andrew's door, it wasn't safe to assume that that was where he was at. I think they should of took other precautions," said Blout.

http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florida/Deputies-shoot-kill-man-after-knocking-on-wrong-door/-/11788162/15527202/-/euk6tg/-/index.html

Private Joined: Oct 06, 2009 Posts: 225

Alot went wrong on both sides of the door there.
Home owner should have called the police, or looked to see who it was.
Offiecrs should have had better intell or identified themselfs.
Just a bad situation.

Corporal Joined: Mar 16, 2010 Posts: 523

I don't care WHO is at my door! Somebody comes banging on my door at that ridiculous hour, they be looking down the barrels of a double-barrelled shotty! The barrels would be pushed through the slats of the miniblind (with me behind the wall, NOT the door!) and I'd yell at them to ID themselves.

Needless to say, I'd also be recording all of this.

Member **Founders Club** Joined: Dec 12, 2007 Posts: 4436

Given this circumstance you'd probably also be dead the next morning.

I have 0 problem with you answering the door armed, but I don't think you should answer it with the barrel pointed at the person at the door. Remember, don't cover anything with the muzzle that you don't wish to destroy. Unless you can see out a window and confirm that it's robber or zombie then you don't know who is on the other side of the door. If you don't know who it is then you probably shouldn't have already decided to destroy it.

Perhaps it's a family member or friend that needs a place to stay for the night (has happened to me at 2am before). Or perhaps it's a LEO looking for a suspect in your neighborhood. Or perhaps just some kids pulling pranks, anyway, without knowing the the person on the other side of the door is a lethal threat it is innappropriate to point your firearm at them. Keep it next to you, talk through the door without opening it. If you have to open it, then open it and back up quickly, or better yet, get someone else there to give you a hand.

IDK, that's my $0.56 (inflation)

Lieutenant Joined: Nov 12, 2009 Posts: 2429

TylerH wrote:

Given this circumstance you'd probably also be dead the next morning.

I have 0 problem with you answering the door armed, but I don't think you should answer it with the barrel pointed at the person at the door. Remember, don't cover anything with the muzzle that you don't wish to destroy. Unless you can see out a window and confirm that it's robber or zombie then you don't know who is on the other side of the door. If you don't know who it is then you probably shouldn't have already decided to destroy it.

Perhaps it's a family member or friend that needs a place to stay for the night (has happened to me at 2am before). Or perhaps it's a LEO looking for a suspect in your neighborhood. Or perhaps just some kids pulling pranks, anyway, without knowing the the person on the other side of the door is a lethal threat it is innappropriate to point your firearm at them. Keep it next to you, talk through the door without opening it. If you have to open it, then open it and back up quickly, or better yet, get someone else there to give you a hand.

IDK, that's my $0.56 (inflation)

I agree with all of that, my problem is I have trouble believing the story, the homeowner is dead, he probley was not "pointing" the gun at the police and they just shot him for no good reason. and we will never here the truth from the home owner

Member **Founders Club** Joined: Dec 12, 2007 Posts: 4436

Yeah, unfortunately many "investiations" aren't trustworthy. It would be a bad idea to point a firearm at the cops unless you were 100% ready to pull the trigger.