MINNEOLA, Florida — A Lake County sheriff's deputy who shot a 17-year-old in the foot during a pre-dawn car-burglary chase in Minneola believed the teen's illuminated cellphone was a gun, according to a probable-cause affidavit released on Friday, Nov. 6. The sheriff's office also released a short body-camera clip from the shooting, which happened at about 3:45 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, on Cumberland Circle, a residential street in this fast-growing Lake County city west of Orlando.
Source: Inside Lake
What the affidavit says happened on Cumberland Circle
Deputies were called to Cumberland Circle at about 3:43 a.m. after a resident reported seeing a person dressed in black and wearing a ski mask near parked vehicles on home security footage, according to the affidavit, which was prepared by Lake County Sheriff's Detective Fadee Lutfi. A responding deputy found someone matching that description rummaging through a green BMW in a driveway in the 800 block of Cumberland Circle.
Source: GatorCurrent (affidavit reporting)
The teen ran when the deputy got out of his marked patrol vehicle, and jumped a white fence behind a nearby home, the affidavit says. The deputy lost sight of him, returned to his patrol vehicle to reposition, and then resumed the chase on foot.
According to the affidavit, the teen then came back around the fence to retrieve a backpack and a motorcycle-style e-bike he had left behind. He pointed the illuminated phone directly at the deputy, who believed it was a gun and fired, striking the teen in the foot. No deputies were injured.
The bodycam — and the teen's account
The bodycam clip released by the sheriff's office shows a brief light in the darkness before the teen comes into view on the grass. Notably, the footage does not clearly show what he was holding or how he held it — which means the video alone does not settle the central question of what the deputy could see in that moment.
At Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and then arrested on Thursday, the teen told deputies he had entered the BMW twice and had lost his e-bike keys while running from the deputy, according to the affidavit. He said he turned on his phone's flashlight to look for the keys and then encountered the deputy. Lake County Sheriff's Office Capt. John Herrell said the teen is expected to fully recover.
Charges — and what the car owners said
The teen was arrested on charges of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance while wearing a mask and attempted burglary of a conveyance while wearing a mask — both felonies — along with misdemeanour resisting an officer without violence. The attempted-burglary allegation involves a Toyota Corolla on the same street. The owners of both cars reported that nothing was missing, and the BMW's owner told investigators he did not wish to prosecute, according to the affidavit reporting. Because the suspect is 17, prosecutors will decide how his case proceeds through Florida's juvenile and adult court process.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is investigating the shooting itself, and the deputy has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal review by the sheriff's office. Inside Lake notes both steps are standard procedure after a deputy-involved shooting in Florida.
Background: 'car hopping' and split-second claims
Minneola sits along the U.S. Highway 27 corridor in south Lake County, one of the fastest-growing parts of the Orlando metropolitan area, where new subdivisions have replaced citrus groves over the past two decades. Overnight vehicle break-ins — often called 'car hopping,' in which someone moves driveway to driveway trying door handles — are among the most common property crimes reported in such suburbs, and sheriff's offices across Central Florida regularly urge residents to lock vehicles and take valuables inside. Cases in which an officer says a phone or another object was mistaken for a weapon are typically decided on exactly the kind of detail now in the record here: lighting, distance, what the bodycam does and does not show, and whether the person's own account matches the physical evidence.
What happens next
The FDLE investigation will be turned over for review once complete, and the sheriff's office internal review will decide whether the shooting followed agency policy; the deputy who fired has not been named in the reports released so far. The teen's charges move forward separately. Awaaz Punjab will follow the FDLE outcome and any charging decisions.