Florida deputy killed and 2 officers wounded in ambush shooting, police say

A Florida sheriff’s deputy was killed and two other officers were wounded as they tried to reach the first officer in what police called an ambush shooting at a home.

The three officers were shot Friday night at a home in Eustis, Florida, Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said during a news conference at the scene.

Two suspects were killed and a third was wounded when police stormed the home in an attempt to rescue an officer who had been shot and trapped inside, Grinnell said.

Police received a report of a public order disturbance around 8 p.m. Two officers went to look a few houses down the street and found a door that appeared to have been kicked in.

“When officers entered the house, there was a lot of gunfire,” Grinnell said.

One officer was shot and pinned down while the other retreated. More officers arrived and formed a team to enter the home and rescue the officer, but they were met with “a hail of gunfire” and another officer was hit, Grinnell said.

The male officer who was shot first and was trapped in the building did not survive, he said.

The second officer suffered a shoulder wound and was in stable condition. A third officer was shot multiple times in the armpit, groin and abdomen and underwent surgery, said Grinnell, who did not immediately identify the officers involved.

“It’s just horrible when you have one of your own people in your home and you can’t get to it,” said Grinnell, who explained that SWAT team members were involved in reentering the home in Eustis, about 37 miles (59 kilometers) northwest of Orlando.

“We have equipment for that and that’s why we have this equipment, and we tore the house apart to get in there so we could get that officer out,” Grinnell said. “It was a chaotic scene from start to finish.”

Two suspects were found dead when SWAT entered the home and a third was taken to the hospital, Grinnell said.

There was no violent crime in the home and nothing to indicate the situation was dangerous, he said.

“They were ambushed,” Grinnell said.