What started as a hit-and-run accident Saturday ended in an officer-involved shooting in Eustis and a suspect being taken to the hospital in critical condition, deputies said.
The crash happened at the County Road 44 bypass in Lake County. Moments after an aqua-colored Ford Mustang fled the scene of the crash, a witness called 911 and followed the Mustang to a house along the 2000 block of Grant Avenue.
When Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Eustis Police Department officers arrived to the house, they talked to a woman for about an hour.
All of a sudden, the woman pulled out a handgun and threatened to shoot them.
“Well, I was standing in the kitchen, and I heard this pop, pop, pop,” said Susan Lynn Rausch, who lives nearby.
Investigators said the shots that Rausch heard were aimed at the hit-and-run suspect.
Two deputies and one police officer were questioning the woman when she pulled out the gun.
“When the suspect produced a handgun, the officers felt threatened and that’s when they shot to defend themselves,” said John Herrell, of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman was taken to the hospital in critical condition, deputies said.
The two Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies and a Eustis Police Department officer have been placed on administrative leave as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates the incident.