Pasco County Sheriff's Office deputies are investigating a deputy-involved shooting that occurred in New Port Richey on Monday night.
A Pasco County Sheriff’s deputy, just 6 months on the job, was shot twice by a man carrying a pellet gun at U.S 19 and Gulf Blvd..
Captain Chris Beaman said the gun looked real and the deputies returned fire after trying to get the man to drop the weapon.
“He raised the firearm and fires twice,” Beaman said. The rookie deputy, and a 7-year-veteran training the deputy both returned fire hitting the man multiple times in the lower extremities.
The man, who has not been identified by law enforcement is 36-years-old and has prior convictions in 2012 for simple battery and domestic battery.
The suspect and deputies are all expected to be OK. The deputy that was shot suffered a flesh wound to his legs.
“It’s just another circumstance where they are put in a harmful situation where they have to make a split second decision. They definitely showed constraint in the sense that they tried to talk him out of dropping this gun out of his hand for approximately a minute,” Beaman said.
