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Polk Deputies Involved In Fatal Overnight Shooting
News Channel 8 photo by JOHN WINTERROWD
The shooting occurred at 1321 Penny Royal Ct. near Lakeland sometime after midnight, said sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Wood.
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Published: March 22, 2009
Updated: 03/22/2009 12:09 pm
LAKELAND - Two Polk County Sheriff's deputies shot and killed a man who pointed a 9-mm pistol at them outside an apartment near Lakeland early this morning.
The deputies fired eight to 12 rounds at Carlos Torres-Ramos, 38, when he aimed a semi-automatic pistol at them outside an apartment at 1341 Penny Royal Court in Lakeland, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said this morning.
After the gunfire, Torres-Ramos went back in the apartment that only seconds earlier had been cleared of a woman and three children, ranging from 9 to 13 years old. A SWAT team entered the apartment and found Ramos dead, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Ramos did not fire at the deputies, but aiming a gun at deputies is all that is necessary, the sheriff said.
"If you point a firearm at our deputies you can expect to be shot," Judd said at a news conference today.
The incident started about a mile away with an unrelated gunfight between Ramos and Jose Negron, 16, about 1:40 a.m. at Negron's home at 128 Idaho Ave. in Lakeland. That shootout left Negron wounded in the leg, the sheriff's office said.
Investigators learned Ramos had left in a white Mitsubishi and a deputy knew where to find it, the sheriff's office said.
Deputies went to the apartment on Penny Royal Court and found the car. Ramos was inside taking a shower when deputies got the woman and three children out of the apartment.
Seconds after the children were evacuated Ramos came outside and the shooting occurred, the sheriff's office said.
Investigators found shell casings at the Idaho Avenue scene that matched the gun Ramos pointed at deputies, Judd said.
Meanwhile, relatives took Negron to 118 Edgewater Drive in the Carefree Cove subdivision because he was wanted on charges of felony battery, resisting arrest without violence and trespassing, the sheriff's office said.
Negron was arrested and taken to Winter Haven Hospital, the sheriff's office said.
Judd said investigations by his department, the Medical Examiner's Office and the State Attorney's Office into the fatal shooting will continue.
Ramos has faced weapons, drug and domestic violence charges in Puerto Rico, Judd said.
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