Deputy Shot, Critically Injured

A Florida sheriff’s deputy and a suspect have died after a shooting and subsequent standoff at a motel during a domestic violence investigation, police said.

News of the shooting has rocked the Tampa Bay area law enforcement community with many local agencies posting on the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. Ashely says Myers loved spending time with his family and visiting Disney World.

Myers had a wife, three sons and a granddaughter.

“When someone shoots a law officer, they have nothing to lose”, she said.

He told a news conference that Fuller was seen trying to open doors of cars and homes and was heard by one witness yelling, “I have a gun”.

The order being served by Myers had barred Smith from possessing firearms, and Myers was walking to Smith’s auto to get retrieve some weapons when Smith pulled out a concealed gun and began shooting, The Associated Press reported. There were four shell casings found at the scene but it wasn’t immediately clear if Smith fired each round.

A Comfort Suites guest, David Bump of Ozark, Alabama, said he awoke Tuesday to deputies pounding at his room.

“Certainly there was no indication… that there was violence to be expected”, Ashley said.

Smith, a postal worker, fled in his vehicle, heading to a Comfort Suites about 10 miles away in Niceville, where he had previously booked a room.

According to initial reports, the suspect shot a Sheriff’s Deputy outside an attorney’s office on Plew Avenue in Shalimar at 8:20 a.m. At last check, the deputy was in critical condition.

Judd said Fuller went back inside, then emerged and pointed a black and chrome object at the deputy. Meyers also died at the same hospital, the agency said.

Myers is the fourth OCSO deputy who has been killed since 2008.

Smith had been arrested in 2008 for domestic battery, Ashley said, but had no other details. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, there have been 94 line-of-duty deaths since 2015 began. Two others were fatally wounded during firearms training.