RIVERVIEW, Fla. – Florida sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a man as they attempted to serve warrants on him Tuesday night, officials said.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said during a late night news conference that Dylan Ray Scott, 27, “motioned for a gun" after deputies had located him in a pickup truck outside of a McDonald's restaurant around 10 p.m. Tuesday.
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Scott was wanted on warrants for grand theft and resisting arrest, the sheriff's office said.
He was sitting in the truck with a woman when deputies spotted him, Chronister said. They approached the truck and asked him to step outside.
“Instead of surrendering himself, he punched the gas on his truck, went out of the parking lot, down the ravine, the embankment, and out into the busy the road here on Bloomingdale Avenue at which time he struck an innocent driver who was driving on the roadway,” the sheriff said.
Some of the deputies began assisting the injured driver while others continued trying to get Scott out of the truck, according to Chronister. Scott refused, and repeatedly told deputies that he had a gun.
Deputies managed to get the woman safely out of the truck.
“The deputies did an absolutely textbook job of trying to get him to surrender himself, stopping short of begging him not to reach for this firearm that he said that he had,” the sheriff said. “They kept pleading with him to, ‘Show us your hands, show us your hands.’ He kept saying, ‘I have a gun.’”
That's when Scott “takes that overt action to reach toward the firearm,” Chronister said. Deputies opened fire, striking Scott multiple times. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
Sheriff's officials did not say whether they found a gun in Scott's truck.
Scott's arrest history includes charges of fleeing and attempting to elude police, reckless driving, resisting an officer without violence, burglary of an occupied dwelling, resisting an officer with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer, the sheriff's office said.
No deputies were injured, but the driver of the minivan was taken to a hospital after complaining of chest pains.
The deputies involved in the shooting are Sgt. Michael Hannaford, Corporal Steven Schneider, Deputy Timothy Miskell and Deputy Devin Wooden.
They have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of the incident by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Chronister said.
The sheriff said the deputies wore body cameras and that the footage will be release if FDLE does not object.
“We’ll get that out to the public.” he said. “That’s the reason we have them. We want to be completely transparent.”