Volusia Sheriff's Deputy Shoots, Kills DeLeon Springs Man

DELEON SPRINGS, Florida -- The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is reporting that a Volusia County Sheriff’s deputy, who was part of a team that was serving a search warrant Thursday morning, shot and killed a man who allegedly armed himself with a rifle and refused orders to put down the weapon.  The search warrant was the result of an ongoing stolen property investigation.

The shooting occurred at about 5:44 a.m. this morning, inside a home on State Road 11 in DeLeon Springs, Florida.  The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office’s SWAT Team along with patrol deputies and investigators had gathered at the house Thursday morning to execute a court-ordered search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.  

Officials say that the SWAT Team had made entry into the residence and was in the process of going through the house room-by-room when a SWAT deputy was confronted by a man who armed himself with a rifle. The deputy took defensive action by opening fire after the man refused orders to put down the firearm.  The shooting occurred in a second-floor bedroom.  The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

36-year-old has Deputy Benyamin Yisrael, who has been with the Sheriff's Office since 2003, has been placed on paid administrative leave, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been called in to investigate the shooting.  Both are standard practices in officer-involved shootings.  This is the first fatal shooting involving a Volusia County deputy in nearly six years.