DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A Daytona Beach police officer shot and killed a man who stabbed him in the face Thursday morning at a gas station in Volusia County, authorities said.
The police department identified the man who was shot as 36-year-old Benjamin Remley.
The stabbing and shooting happened outside a Sunoco gas station on West International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona Beach.
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Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said the owner of the gas station called police and asked them to remove Remley for trespassing, the second time police had been called to deal with the man.
Daytona Beach police and the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office have released the body-camera video showing what led up to the shooting. It can be viewed in the media player below. A word of warning; the video may be disturbing to some and discretion is advised. News 6 has removed the footage of the shooting itself as well as the aftermath, but the audio can still be heard.
A Daytona Beach police officer approached Remley, as did a Volusia County sheriff’s deputy who happened to be a customer inside the gas station, officials said. A fight ensued, and Young said at some point Remley pulled out a knife and stabbed the police officer in the face, on the left side of his upper jaw.
“I’m grateful to the sheriff and his deputy for being on scene and being here to back up my officer, because the suspect was a very large individual,” Young said.
The officer, whose name has also not been released, shot Remley twice, Young said. Officers who arrived on scene after the shooting attempted first aid on Remley, but he ultimately died at the hospital, according to a release.
The officer was taken to a hospital where he is expected to recover, according to Young. The department said the officer was released from the hospital just before 3 p.m.
The deputy did not open fire, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. The sheriff said the deputy and officer were in close contact with Remley and the deputy never saw the knife, though Young said it was visible on the body-camera video of the officer.
“This was really a bang-bang incident,” Chitwood said. “And I don’t mean that to be funny but I’m just saying it was in the blink of an eye, goes to show you how fast, when you see the body camera footage, an encounter over a trespasser turned deadly.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting, which is standard procedure.
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