INTERLACHEN, Fla. – The Putnam County Sheriff praised a 67-year-old Florida woman Wednesday after she shot and killed an armed man who barged into her home early that morning, according to a post on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page.
The woman told deputies she heard her front door handle shaking around 3 a.m., figuring it could have been her husband returning from work yet still bringing a gun with her to investigate, the post states.
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She opened the door and a man — 64-year-old Reginald Best, of Interlachen — forced his way inside, according to the sheriff’s office. The woman said she repeatedly told Best to leave. The woman saw he was holding a gun and shot him, deputies said.
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Best was found “lying on the floor bleeding from a single gunshot wound” after the woman called 911, the post states. He was taken to a hospital where he died, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies said Best had already made separate “erratic” calls placed earlier. Best told dispatchers that he was hiding from his neighbors, describing “people in orange standing outside his residence” on Silver Lake Drive, according to the post. Before deputies could get there, he had already jumped out of a window and began to run down the street with a firearm in hand, the sheriff’s office said.
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