Florida Man Killed in Police Mix-Up
The death of a man shot inside his home, by a sheriff’s deputy who went to the wrong apartment looking for a criminal suspect, has sparked protests this week over police procedures in the central Florida city of Leesburg.
Andrew “Drew” Scott, 26, a pizza delivery driver, was shot dead at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday when deputies knocked on his apartment door without identifying themselves as law enforcement officers. Scott opened his door holding a gun, according to Lake County Sheriff spokesman Lieutenant John Herrell.
The Lake County Sheriff has no policy requiring deputies to announce themselves, Herrell told Reuters.
Prominent Orlando lawyer Mark Nejame, who has been hired by Scott’s family, told Reuters on Friday that lack of policy puts gun-owning homeowners like Scott in a life-threatening dilemma.
“If they go to the door and it’s a criminal, fine. But if it turns out in the game of Russian roulette that it’s a law enforcement officer, you’re dead,” Nejame said.
Nejame said Scott acted reasonably and legally in arming himself while trying to determine who was banging on his door in the middle of the night.
Brian Evey, manager of a pizza store where Scott worked in Leesburg, 45 miles northwest of Orlando, scheduled a candlelight vigil for Saturday night in front of Scott’s apartment complex, and marched with several dozen protesters earlier in the week in front of the sheriff’s office.
“This could happen to anybody. We do not want this to happen again,” Evey said.