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Man In Port Charlotte Home Found Dead After 10-Hour Standoff

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Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: September 22, 2008

PORT CHARLOTTE - A standoff with an armed man that sent bullets flying through a Port Charlotte neighborhood is over.

The 10-hour standoff began Sunday afternoon and ended about 11:30 p.m. after officials smashed in the front door using an armored vehicle, then sent a robot into the home to do surveillance and found the man dead in a bathroom.

The man's identity has not been released.

The home on the 18400 block of Wintergarden Avenue, where the standoff occurred, is owned by 46-year-old Thomas E. Dickie, according to county records.

Dickie is the president of Celebrity Pools, according to a background check. He was arrested Sept. 7 and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, obstruction with violence, eluding an officer and driving under the influence, according to court documents. An arraignment was scheduled for Oct. 13.

A relative of the man in the house contacted authorities Sunday, asking deputies to check on him and saying he was "intoxicated, irrational, suicidal and had a lot of weapons in the home," according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

When deputies arrived, they encountered a barrage of bullets coming from the home that hit and entering a home across the street, officials said.

Officials say four dozen or more bullets may have been fired, but no one was injured.

Some homes in the area were evacuated, and residents in a two-block area were told to stay inside during the incident.

Officials did have some contact with the man during the standoff, with crisis negotiators talking to him by phone.

"His main statement was that he did not want to go back to jail," sheriff's office spokesman Bob Carpenter said as the standoff was under way Sunday.

Charlotte County deputies, detectives and canine units responded to the scene along with crisis negotiators, the Charlotte County SWAT team and the Lee County Sheriff's Office SWAT and bomb squad teams.

The man's body was taken to the Charlotte County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.

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