Brevard sheriff's agents search home, details in deadly SWAT shootout
Neighbors had been talking about the cars that would stream along the ordinarily quiet streets of the beachside community, one dotted with Miami-style homes and tall, swaying palm trees.
Then came the Brevard County Sheriff Office’s SWAT on Wednesday afternoon, pulling into the neighborhood, ready with a warrant to carry out a search of a home on Beverly Court, south of Melbourne Beach. A short time later came a blast from a shotgun, held by an unnamed man, from inside the targeted home.
What followed was a hail of bullets fired into the home, striking the man and injuring a woman, according to Sheriff Wayne Ivey. The man was later found dead.
Late Wednesday, a sole patrol car blocked the narrow roadway to the home in the residential area, a place where neighbors felt comfortable enough to leave their garage doors open into the night.
Neighbors in the community, nestled between the Indian River to the west and the ocean a short walk away, were mostly quiet about the incident, retreating to their homes as reporters asked questions.
Ethan Frenz lives a few houses to the east of the targeted home.
“My sister told me the cops were outside,” Frenz said as he waited for a deputy to allow him past the cordoned-off area by his home.
“This is a really quiet area, but I’m not surprised. There was a lot of traffic in and out over there."
Ivey, who accompanied the SWAT team for the afternoon search warrant, said law enforcement agents called out to the residents inside the home, located in the 200 block of Beverly Court. An older woman stepped out of the home and agents resumed calling for other residents, the woman's son and his friend to walk out.
Deputies spotted the man in a hallway with a shotgun. The unidentified man pointed the shotgun at the deputies and fired.
The SWAT team returned fire, striking the man and the woman. The woman was taken from the house by Brevard County Fire Rescue and transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of her injuries. If confirmed, the shooting would be the first such deadly incident for Brevard in the new year.
An autopsy is expected to be conducted to review the injuries, how they happened and to determine the exact cause of death in the man's case. The woman who survived remains hospitalized.
The search warrant at the home — located not far from the Sebastian Inlet and in a neighborhood where homes range from $600,000 to over $1 million, according to real estate website Zillow — was conducted late Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear what, if any, drugs the sheriff's office located or the quantity. Ivey said agents believed fentanyl and meth would possibly be located inside the residence.
The Brevard County sheriff's office — which, unlike other agencies, does not use the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct shooting incidents deputies are involved in — is investigating the case.
Several unidentified deputies from the SWAT team involved in returning fire at the armed man have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
The sheriff's office will gather interviews, its own forensic evidence, ballistics information and other elements of the case to present to the State Attorney's Office for review within two to three months.
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard sheriff's agents search home, details in deadly SWAT shootout
