DELEON SPRINGS -- A Volusia County Sheriff's deputy who was part of a team serving a search warrant early this morning, shot and killed a man who armed himself with a rifle and refused orders to put down the weapon.
The shooting occurred at 5:44 a.m., inside a home on State Road 11 in DeLeon Springs.
"The Sheriff's Office's SWAT Team along with patrol deputies and investigators had gathered at the house Thursday morning to execute a court-ordered search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation," agency spokesman Gary Davidson said. "The SWAT Team had made entry into the residence and was in the process of going through the house room-by-room when a SWAT deputy was confronted by a man who armed himself with a rifle."
Davidson said the deputy "took defensive action by opening fire after the man refused orders to put down the firearm."
The shooting occurred in a second-floor bedroom. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The deputy has been placed on paid administrative leave, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been called in to investigate the shooting. Both are standard practices in officer-involved shootings.
This is the first fatal shooting involving a Volusia County deputy in nearly six years.
No names have been released.