Deputy shot and killed man witnesses said pointed long gun at them

A Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man who was carrying two guns in a shopping cart and allegedly pointed one of the guns at people in Lake Worth Beach on Thursday morning, the agency said.

Shortly before 9:30 a.m., the Sheriff’s Office received multiple calls about a “suspicious” man in the 7000 block of South Military Trail, near the corner of Hypoluxo Road. Several people told deputies that the man pointed a long gun at them, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Teri Barbera said.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters that multiple people called 911, reporting that the man was pointing a rifle at them. One woman said the man approached her and her child in their car while armed with the rifle and attempted to steal the car, Bradshaw said.

When deputies found him, they told him to show his hands and lie on the ground, but he was “jittery and uncooperative,” Barbera said. He put down the shotgun he was holding and grabbed the rifle.

When deputies found the man, the rifle was lying on the ground near the shopping cart and the shotgun was in the shopping cart, Bradshaw said. The deputy “tried to de-escalate the situation,” when the man grabbed the shotgun from the shopping cart before putting it down again after the deputy’s commands, then “advanced toward the deputy.”

“He reached over, picked up the rifle with the barrel that was pointed down-range at the deputy, and that’s when the deputy shot him,” Bradshaw said.

Barbera said the man died at the hospital shortly after the shooting. The Sheriff’s Office has not released his name because they have not yet contacted his family.

The Sheriff’s Office has not released the name of the deputy who shot the man. The deputy has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting, which is customary.

So far in 2024, officers and deputies at various agencies have shot and killed at least five other people in South Florida.

Last month, Fort Lauderdale Police officers killed a Margate man who had a history of struggling with mental illness in a shootout at a hotel, and an officer was also shot. Davie Police officers shot and killed a man who pulled out a cellphone and the officers believed it was a gun. Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies killed a Broward Transit employee in a shootout at the transit center in Pompano Beach in March after the man shot and killed a coworker inside a nearby work building.

Earlier this year, a Broward Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man in Weston who had been reported missing a few days earlier. He allegedly “charged at deputies” while armed with a weapon. In January, a man wanted for a previous domestic violence incident was shot and killed by Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies in Oakland Park after a standoff .

FDLE is investigating all of the recent shootings.