ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – New body-worn camera videos released Thursday by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office show deputies attempt to negotiate with — and ultimately kill — a man accused of holding his daughter hostage after he shot and stabbed the child’s mother.
The scene began to unfold the evening of July 19, when deputies responded around 5 p.m. to a home near the intersection of Colony Oaks Lane and North Hiawassee Road. Investigators initially said that one person at the home was taken to a hospital after a domestic disturbance and the alleged attacker, 31-year-old Deshaun Albert Dunmyer, refused to leave the residence.
“He shot and stabbed the mother of his child. He held his own child hostage for several hours and refused to surrender. He did have a gun and we were in fear for the child’s safety and had to take action,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina said at a news conference early the next day.
The child’s mother had been hospitalized in critical condition at the time of the update, according to Mina.
The videos shared Thursday show negotiators speaking with Dunmyer — first over the phone, then through the front door of the home — demanding that he throw out his gun and let his daughter go.
“I promise you she’s going to be alright,” the negotiator can be heard saying. “I need you to be alright because she needs a father, OK? She needs her father, Deshaun, so I need you to put the gun down, I need you to open that door and walk toward my voice, do you hear me?”
Though Dunmyer allegedly made indications that he would cooperate, the sheriff’s office said he only created further delay and refused to exit the home. It was at this point the negotiator warned Dunmyer that SWAT deputies were about to force his door open.
Now with a view inside the home, the deputies said Dunmyer could be seen holding a gun and hiding with the child, moving from behind a couch in the living room to a bedroom and back again before he was eventually shot.
“Deshaun, let’s go bud, come on, you’re good,” a deputy says.
“You’re going to kill me in front of my daughter?” Dunmyer replied.
Multiple deputies responded, “We’re not going to kill you!” “(Give me) that gun, please!”
Some moments later, SWAT deputies shot Dunmyer as he was attempting to say something else. The footage — which has been edited for brevity and to obscure certain individuals’ names and statements, as well as what they saw — does not directly show Dunmyer being shot.
After Dunmyer was shot, the videos show SWAT deputies rush into the house to retrieve the wailing child.
The deputies who fired their weapons would remain on temporary, paid administrative leave pending an ongoing Florida Department of Law Enforcement review, according to the sheriff’s office. Once the FDLE review is complete, the findings will be turned over first to the State Attorney’s Office, then to the sheriff’s office for internal review.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: