DELEON SPRINGS, Fla. – A Volusia County deputy shot and killed a man armed with a rifle when the man refused to put his gun down, the Sheriff's Office told WKMG-TV.
Deputies said a SWAT team and several patrol deputies attempted to serve a search warrant in a stolen property case just before 5:45 a.m. Thursday at a home at 6105 State Road 11 in a wooded area near Clifton and Saratoga Farms roads in DeLeon Springs.
Members of the SWAT team broke into the home and were clearing it room-by-room when Ross Lambert, who had a rifle, confronted Deputy Benyamin Yisrael on the second floor, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. Yisrael, 36, shot and killed Ross, 29, when he refused to put his rifle down, according to the Sheriff's Office.
A woman and two children were also inside the home but were not injured. Their relationship to Ross, who lived at the home, was not known.
Yisrael has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure when a law enforcement officer fires a gun, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting.
The incident marks the first fatal shooting involving a Volusia County deputy in nearly six years.