DELAND, Fla. — New cell phone video shows the final moments of a carjacking that turned into a law enforcement chase, which ended in a deadly shootout in Volusia County.
- JUMP TO: ▼ Shootout video as captured by sheriff's helicopter, deputy's body-worn camera ▼
- Woman records Volusia deputy shootout on cell phone
- Suspect ran into woods, pursued by deputies, sheriff
- Witness: "It's something you see on the news"
- RELATED: Suspect Dead, Deputy Shot in Volusia County Pursuit
A shocked Anita Dagostino captured the video as everything unfolded just feet from her vehicle as she and coworkers drove home from work.
It started when Volusia County Sheriff's deputies say 30-year-old Phillip Thomas Marsh carjacked a truck from Nancy Aguiar's Deltona home at 2:21 p.m. Thursday. Aguiar's adult children, in the back seat of the truck, escaped before Marsh took off, heading north on State Road 44 toward DeLand.
Dagostino on Friday described the shootout as something out of a movie. At first, she thought it was a hit-and-run crash and started recording the incident with her phone. But when Marsh got out of his vehicle, she realized it was worse.
"Lock your doors, put your windows up," she's heard yelling on her video. Later, she says, "Oh God, they’re shooting at him."
Dagostino said she still can't believe that the incident unfolded right in front of her.
"They started shooting at him; he went into the woods, and they started shooting back, and he just went like this, he was gone," she said.
"It's surreal," Dagostino said. "It's something you see on the news, not something you witness firsthand."
Despite the gunfire feet from her car, she said she wasn't scared, believing that Volusia County deputies had the situation under control.
"It's OK. We'll be OK. It's all right," she's heard saying on the video.
One of the deputies, 55-year-old Sgt. Thomas Dane, was grazed in the head by a bullet during the incident — his hat shows the spots where the bullet entered and exited.
He was taken to a hospital but has been discharged, and Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Dane is doing well.
Marsh died Thursday night from his injuries.
Chitwood said that per standard protocol, the five deputies who fired their weapons are on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. In addition to Dane, they are: Sgt. Joel Hernandez, 40; Senior Deputy Adam Clausen, 44; Det. Jordan McDaniel, 42; and Deputy Hector Rodriguez, 28.
"It almost looked like a textbook thing, you know, something you’d see on TV," she said Friday. "(It) worked out great for them in the end. It really was. They really did a great job. They should be given kudos."
