Four Citrus County sheriff's deputies shot and killed a man who, deputies said, was holding a woman in a headlock with a knife in Crystal River, Florida, on Saturday evening, November 7 — a fatal encounter on U.S. Highway 19, in the middle of the city's Stone Crab Jam festival weekend, that is now under independent investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

Source: Citrus Gazette

According to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, deputies were dispatched Saturday evening after reports of an armed man in the area of Northeast Third Avenue and U.S. Highway 19. The Citrus Gazette, reporting from the sheriff's office's account, placed the confrontation at 719 NE U.S. Highway 19, outside Marco's Pizza. Deputies said the man was holding the woman with one arm, had a knife in his other hand, and was also holding a dog on a leash.

Captain Mat Baird of the sheriff's office said deputies gave the man verbal commands to release the woman, but he kept threatening her, WFLA News Channel 8 reported. The Gazette reported that the confrontation escalated when the man forced the woman to the ground and pinned her down while still holding the knife. At that point, all four deputies at the scene discharged their agency-issued firearms, striking the man.

The woman, the deputies and the road closure

The man was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died from his injuries, the sheriff's office said. The woman was also taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation. No deputies were injured. Neither the man's nor the woman's identity had been released as of Sunday's reporting, and the sheriff's office had not said what, if anything, connected the two people before Saturday evening, or what first brought deputies to the highway.

Roads around the scene were closed while investigators worked, including U.S. Highway 19 between Northeast Second Avenue and Three Sisters Springs Trail, according to reporting on the sheriff's office's response. U.S. 19 is the main north–south highway through Crystal River and Citrus County, carrying local traffic, festival visitors and through-drivers between Tampa Bay and Florida's Nature Coast — so a Saturday-evening closure on Stone Crab Jam weekend, one of the city's biggest annual draws, snarled the very corridor visitors were using to reach the festival grounds.

Second fatal deputy shooting in little more than a month

Saturday's shooting is the second fatal deputy-involved shooting involving the Citrus County Sheriff's Office in little more than a month, the Gazette noted. On October 4, deputies in Inverness fatally shot 24-year-old Joey Ray Dawson after responding to a 911 call involving a reported threat on East Seneca Street. In that encounter, too, four deputies fired their weapons, and the object Dawson pointed toward deputies was later identified as a radio rather than a firearm, according to the Gazette's reporting. That October shooting was likewise investigated independently by the FDLE.

What happens next

All four deputies involved in Saturday's confrontation have been placed on administrative leave in accordance with agency policy while the FDLE conducts its independent investigation, the sheriff's office said. The investigation is expected to examine the circumstances leading up to the shooting, the man's actions, and the deputies' use of deadly force. The sheriff's office said the inquiry remains active. Until the FDLE review advances and the sheriff's office releases the names it has so far withheld, the public record of Saturday evening rests on the agency's own account: a woman held at knifepoint on the highway, commands that deputies say were refused, and four deputies who fired. No charges are possible against the man who died, and no separate suspect was reported at large on Sunday.