Deputies shoot, kill man after knocking on wrong door

UPDATED 12:26 PM EDT Jul 16, 2012

http://www.wesh.com/news/central-flo...g/-/index.html

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -

Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies shot and killed a man they assumed was an attempted murder suspect on Sunday, but they now know they shot the wrong man.

In the early morning hours, deputies knocked on 26-year-old Andrew Lee Scott's door without identifying themselves as law enforcement officers. Scott answered the door with a gun in his hand.

"When we knocked on the door, the door opened and the occupant of that apartment was pointing a gun at deputies and that's when we opened fire and killed him," Lt. John Herrell said.

Deputies thought they were confronting Jonathan Brown, a man accused of attempted murder. Brown was spotted at the Blueberry Hills Apartment complex and his motorcycle was parked across from Andrew Scott's front door.

"It's just a bizarre set of circumstances. The bottom line is, you point a gun at a deputy sheriff or police office, you're going to get shot," Herrell said.

Residents said the unannounced knock at the door at 1:30 a.m. may be the reason why the tragedy happened.

"He was the wrong guy and he got shot and killed anyway. There's fault on both sides. I think more so on the county," Ryan Perry said. "I can understand why he [the deputy] did it, but it should have never gone down like that," Perry said.

Brown was arrested near the same building where Scott was shot. Brown and another suspect in the same case, Anthony Rodriguez, were booked into the Lake County Jail over the weekend.

And this is why when you knock on someones door at 3 AM, you announce that you're from the Sheriff's office.

Sorry, but I'm going to lay the blame pretty completely on them.

The occupant is well within their rights to open their door with a gun in hand for safety.

"When we knocked on the door, the door opened and the occupant of that apartment was pointing a gun at deputies and that's when we opened fire and killed him," Lt. John Herrell said.

Idiots all around.

You know, as I read threads like this, I keep going back to this.

I've never lived in a place where I would even think about answering the door, regardless of the hour, with a gun in my hand.

I don't live in an area like that, but I've stayed with plenty of friends who do.

And I've answered the door with a shotgun before.

Living in the country, I've also had plenty of times that weren't answering the door, but were definitely going out to check on noises/see what the dogs were barking about where I took a gun along.

On the farm I usually had two pistols I took with me- a .22 revolver loaded with rat-shot for the typical animal menaces, and a Walther PPK loaded with regular .22 for the rest. Either that or a double barreled shotgun, one side loaded with birdshot and the other loaded with buckshot.

If one feels the need to arm themselves and point said weapon at the person knocking at their door @ 1:30 am, why open the door in the first place if you are that scared to do so?