ASPD responded to suspect’s neighborhood over 40 times prior to deadly police-involved shooting
As the Florida Department of Law Enforcement begins its investigation into an officer-involved shooting in Altamonte Springs that occurred Tuesday evening, investigators told Channel 9 they had been called out to the neighborhood 40 times since 2019 for issues involving Erik Seckington.
The fatal officer-involved shooting happened around 5:30 p.m., when a neighbor called 911 and told the dispatcher that 65-year-old Seckington was walking door to door in the River Run neighborhood armed with a rifle.
When Altamonte Springs police arrived, they found Seckington walking around with a rifle and confronted him.
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A police spokesperson would not get into the details of the shooting at this time while it’s being investigated by the state, however; ASPD said Seckington would not obey commands and was shot by an officer. He later died from his injuries.
According to court documents, Seckington was charged with misdemeanor trespassing by his next-door neighbor after the neighbor complained on various occasions over a nearly two year period that Seckington accused him and his now ex-wife of breaking into his home and installing listening devices.
“I know, like I’m pretty sure that we had the most negative interaction,” said his neighbor Ryan Painley.
Read: Investigation underway after Altamonte Springs Police fatally shoot man carrying rifle
Painley told Eyewitness News that Seckington was not always like this when they first lived next to each other.
“We talked over the fence, he bummed a cigarette, and he was an eccentric weird guy, but no problem,” Painley said.
And just overtime it generated. And I think he just didn’t get the help that he needed, said Painley.
After Hurricane Nicole hit in November of 2022, Painley said Seckington changed, ‘There was a gap in the fence. He thought that I broke it. He wasn’t taking any consideration of the storm. But again, it just goes back to one day he would be fine. And then the next day was another person.”
Painley said there were several incidents over the next two years where Seckington would come over to his property and begin digging in their yard, as well as accuse the couple of hacking into his Wi-Fi and threatened the couple.
Painley filed a trespassing charge in November.
From Jan. 29 to Feb. 2, Seckington was in a Tamps behavioral Health Facility, according to court documents.
Painley said on Tuesday he was in court in regard to Seckington, “I just gotten home from court from a restraining order on him for my ex-wife. And we were here at home for an hour. We were out in the driveway smoking a cigarette, and two officers came down the sidewalk and said, ‘Have you seen somebody with a rifle?’ I said, no.”
Officer told Painley to go inside. Painley watch the interaction between Seckington and police from his front window.
“Three officers were out in the driveway with tactical rifles. The lead officer said, ‘put it down,’ didn’t hear any other response. And a few seconds after the officer said that, one shot was fired,” Painley added.
ASPD told WFTV, they believe the officer, who has been with the force for two years, was justified in the shooting.
The officer was wearing a bodycam at the time and that will all be included in evidence as FDLE investigates the case.
Investigators would not say if the rifle Seckington was carrying was loaded or not.
Painley said that in his opinion the officer did what he had to do to protect the neighborhood and himself, “It sucks for the officers to have to go through that, especially the one that ultimately made that decision. It is unfortunate that we had to go through it. But unfortunately, and fortunately, the problem is resolved. And then you know, the neighborhood, is it’s a beautiful neighborhood. It’s a quiet neighborhood and we can go back to it being such.”
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