Posted on 04/20/2006 6:42:31 PM PDT by grjr21
FOREST CITY, Fla. -- A $60 million lottery winner was shot by two Seminole County deputies. Robert Swofford, Jr. is in the hospital with four gunshot wounds.
Swofford, 54, may have thought the deputies on his private property were intruders, but the officers who were looking for a burglar. Instead, they ran into the armed man.
The Seminole County Sheriff's Office released video taken by their helicopter just moments after deputies shot Swofford at his home off 436 near Forest City. They said he had an semi-automatic weapon and refused to drop it.
Swofford's close friend told Channel 9 on Thursday that people are always lurking around his expensive cars on his property. A sheriff's search dog led two deputies onto Swofford's property from the back, about 200 feet behind the house. Then, the three found themselves gun to gun.
The two deputies, dog-handler Billy Morris, a 10-year veteran, and rookie officer Ronnie Remus, said they identified themselves as sheriff's deputies and told the man they thought was their car burglary suspect to drop the gun. Instead, they said, he moved the 9-millimeter handgun toward them and they opened fire.Later, they found out they had shot the $60 million lotto winner.
"My gut feeling is that an alarm went off in the house and he went off to investigate," said Swofford’s close friend Don Buchholz.Swofford's friends said he's installed cameras, sensors and alarm systems all over his property. Since he won the lotto jackpot, he's had a lot of trespassers."People coming on the property, scoping the cars out. We've had to chase them, yeah. We've had a lot of excitement around here," Buchholz said.
But the sheriff's office said they have no written reports of any trespassers on the property and would never recommend that someone take matters into their own hands, unless there was no other alternative, because of the very possibility that something like this could happen.The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is trying to find out why Swofford didn't drop his gun.
His friends don't understand why it happened either."I'm upset. I'm not pointing the finger at anybody. Right now, to me, it was a big accident," Buchholz said.This isn't the first time that Swofford has made headlines since winning the lotto jackpot.
First, he didn't collect the money until his divorce was final. But, eventually, as part of the divorce settlement, he gave his wife $5 million and he has now reunited with her. Then, he was sued twice by his wife's sister, with whom he also has a child.
Two deputies are on administrative leave after Thursday morning's shooting. Deputy Billy Morse has been with the sheriff's office for ten years. Deputy Ronnie Remus has been with Seminole County for one year.Sheriff's records show Deputy Billy Morris has had a few problems during his ten years on the force. Among them, he failed to identify himself as a deputy while off-duty breaking up a bar fight and he shot and killed a suspect's dog a few years ago while trying to make an arrest
The search started in a development adjoining the guy's property. The deputies had to go through a wooded area that seperated the properties to get into this guy's yard.
They theorize that his sensors alerted him to their presence and he went out armed to confront whoever it was.
They keep mentioning his expensive cars but the only one I could make out on the news was a souped-up Neon :-)
Then, he was sued twice by his wife's sister, with whom he also has a child.
Even after the cheeky little anti-gun comment by the Sheriff Deputies.
More than one dangerous weapon this guy doesn't know how to handle.
I wonder why they mention his child by sister in law? Is this the sum of his life? Is he not a Man? Seems most likely just a ploy to influence attention away from the cops.
There was a helicopter overhead.
We have this happen around here regularly, and sometimes it's the military on the ground chasing someone who tried to mess with one of the facilities at Fort Belvoir.
Used to be a prison 5 miles away ~ "Lorton Prison" ~ filled with DC's nastiest criminals.
Better believe no one went outside when those fellows were looking for an escapee.
If you are chasing a burgler ~ in hot pursuit ~ and you encounter an armed person who refuses to back off that means he's probably going to shoot you.
It's a lifestyle thing you know.
Back to the story ~ there was a helicopter overhead. It was hot pursuit. The guys on the ground, with the dog, were hardly following a cold trail ~ they were following instructions from their spotter.
funny that the guy, apparently, hasn't moved. The area he is living in is mostly middle to low end homes. That's why he's getting all those prowlers at night.
You're rich dude, move the Kaliforny!!
Problem is that the officer's word is gold compared to a common citizen.
After all an officer would never lie, be corrupt, etc. /sarc
Even if they are in their uniforms, if it is dark and you don't have a flash light on them you would not know. All you would see is 2 guys holding flashlights directed at you (making it harder to see them) telling you to drop your gun while claiming to be cops. The guy may have had a small flashlight attached to his gun and was trying to put the flashlight on them to see if they are who they claimed to be.
Balaclavas are the ski masks.
I am betting that if the shotgun turns out to be the gun he really had (after all a shotgun is always being mistaken for a 9mm, they look so much alike) he had a flashlight mounted on it and was trying to shine the light one the cops as all he could see was light from the flashlights being shined on him. He would not be able to identify if the voices behind the lights were truely cops without doing so.
What does that matter, maybe after he was divorced he hooked up with his ex sister-in-law (not like it was his sister). We don't know the facts and even if we did that is still no reason to change sides.
See post 95.
Then he can have a ceeement pond.
Deal is, it was dark, the cops were in hot pursuit, this guy was outside waving a gun.
Stuff happens.
FBI did the same trick hunting for Eric Rudolph.
The reason the dog got shot was not that the cops were getting ready to "attack" Randy Weaver's place ~ rather, they thought the dog was a game animal.
Nothing more to it.
Oh, yes, once the locals started running articles about all the rotating FBI agents in the area supposedly hunting Eric Rudolph, the top level in Washington DC pulled them out of the Smoky Mountains.
Still, you'd better believe all the federal police agencies have something similar underway all the time.
How do you know she wasn't his sister?
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