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| Shauna Justice |
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Florida -- An off-duty public safety
telecommunicator with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was arrested
Tuesday after she allegedly pointed a gun at a reporter who had visited her house to try
to interview her for a news story.
The incident occurred at
about 12:35 p.m. on Tuesday at the home of telecommunicator Shauna Justice, who lives near
New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
That’s when a reporter from WESH-2 News knocked on Justice’s door,
with no camera or microphone in hand, to see if she would be willing to be
interviewed for a story.
When Justice answered the knock, she allegedly pointed a gun at
the reporter’s head through the exterior storm door and yelled at the
reporter to get off of her property. Fearing for her life, the reporter backed
away while trying to get Justice to calm down. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office said in a release that Justice then walked out the door
and continued to point the gun at the reporter, only dropping her arm down to
her side when the reporter returned to her news van. The reporter and her photographer
then drove off.
When responding deputies
questioned Justice, she allegedly admitted pointing the gun at the reporter, saying that
she believed she was justified because she was protecting her property and felt
harassed to the point where she felt threatened.
However, the deputy wrote in
his report that Justice made no mention of any threats to her physical
well-being that would have justified her pointing a gun at the reporter. The
28-year-old Justice was arrested and charged with aggravated
assault with a deadly weapon.
Justice was booked into the Volusia County
Branch Jail in Daytona Beach, Florida
on a $1,500 bond. Deputies seized the firearm, a 9mm semi-automatic handgun that
was loaded with 11 bullets in the magazine, but had no bullet in the chamber.
Hired by the
Sheriff’s Office in April 2007, Justice has been suspended without pay. VCSO said that a
disciplinary decision will be based on the results of an internal
investigation.