PBSO deputies forced their way into a Jupiter Gardens Boulevard home early Tuesday and shot a man they found attacking a woman with a knife. She survived with serious injuries, and the shooting is now under state review.
A Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputy-involved shooting early Tuesday, Nov. 10, left one man dead and a woman hospitalized after deputies found the man attacking her with a knife inside a home on Jupiter Gardens Boulevard, the Sheriff's Office said.
Deputies were sent to the 6500 block of Jupiter Gardens Boulevard, in unincorporated Jupiter near Central Boulevard south of West Indiantown Road, after a report of an armed domestic disturbance at about 1:39 a.m. Because the neighborhood sits outside Jupiter town limits, it is patrolled by the Sheriff's Office rather than the Jupiter Police Department.
Inside the home, deputies encountered the man violently attacking the woman with a knife, according to the Sheriff's Office. Deputies tried to pull him off her and could not, and two deputies fired, Chief Deputy Bob Allen said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
The woman was taken to a local hospital with stab wounds, cuts and a possible severe concussion. Allen described her injuries as serious but not life-threatening. The Sheriff's Office has not released her name, the man's name or the names of the deputies involved, and detectives were still working to confirm the man's identity as of Tuesday afternoon.
A night of escalating 911 calls
The shooting followed hours of calls from the home, Allen said. The first calls came shortly after midnight: one hang-up, then another call in which dispatchers could hear a man's voice in the background. When dispatchers called back, a man told them the calls were accidental, and deputies who went to the home shortly after 1 a.m. saw no sign of trouble.
Shortly after 1:30 a.m., the calls turned urgent. A woman reported that her boyfriend had sexually battered her and was holding her at knifepoint, then called again to say she was hiding in a bathroom. Deputies arrived at about 1:51 a.m., heard a woman screaming inside, forced their way in and found the attack in progress, Allen said.
Allen credited the deputies with acting immediately once they heard someone being hurt, saying their response saved the woman's life.
What happens next
Both deputies who fired have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard Sheriff's Office practice after a shooting. Detectives from the PBSO Violent Crimes Division and crime scene investigators are working the case, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office are investigating the shooting itself, including whether the deputies' use of force was legally justified.
The Sheriff's Office said more information will be released as it becomes available. According to the Palm Beach Post, this was the seventh time this year that a PBSO deputy has used deadly force.
JupiterDaily will update this story when the Sheriff's Office releases the names involved and any new findings.
