Carjacking ends with deputy-involved shooting in Brevard County
MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. - The Brevard County Sheriff's Office is looking for a suspect in a carjacking that eventually turned into a deputy-involved shooting.
On Monday, State Road 520 and Courtenay Parkway in Meritt Island was closed off to traffic.
Authorities said it began around 7:45 a.m. in Canaveral Groves.
Investigators said a driver saw two people on the side of the road and stopped to help.
The two people then carjacked the good Samaritan, taking a black Dodge, according to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
Around 1 p.m., a deputy spotted the stolen car. A chase began. Stop sticks brought the chase to an end, but one of the suspects was not done.
Officials say he ran over to a nearby gas station and tried to take another car.
Debbie Yeomens and John Cruz were riding together in that car when they stopped at the gas station and walked inside.
When Yeomens looked out, she said, "I saw him sitting in my car. I yelled, 'That is my car!' and came out. I saw him get out of my car and I saw him waving the pistol in his arm, in his hand."
Cruz said he saw the suspect try to carjack three cars in total after getting out of the first stolen car.
"I saw him get in the car, try to start it and he couldn't. Then, he ran across the street, tried to carjack the first car, the beige one. [He] couldn't get in that one. He went to the second car, the white one, couldn't get in that one," Cruz said.
By this point, deputies had the man surrounded.
One deputy fired at the armed suspect, wounding him.
The deputy, at one point, was aided by an off-duty security guard, officials said.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said during an afternoon news conference, "The individual only had one thing in mind and that was being violent, stealing peoples' cars, putting their lives at risk. Eventually, putting our deputies lives at risk. As you know, if you do that here, you're going to end up exactly were he is."
As of Monday night, one of the two suspects was still on the run.
The other suspect was taken to the hospital.
Investigators say the deputy involved was not injured.