He was taken to Fort Walton Beach Medical Center where he later died, according to the news release.
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Myers was a 25-year veteran of OCSO who had retired in 2013 then rejoined the force in January 2015 to work part-time. Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley, far left, and other sheriff’s office personnel and emergency responders work at the scene of a law office in Shalimar, Fla., where a deputy sheriff was shot Tuesd…
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Myers was shot and killed in front of a lawyer’s office on Tuesday while trying to confiscate firearms from a man who was given a domestic violence injunction.
The Northwest Florida Daily News (http://bit.ly/1Yzv87R ) reports that the shooting took place outside the Cotton and Gates law firm in Shalimar, east of Pensacola.
The deputy, 64-year-old Bill Myers, had just finished serving a domestic violence injunction to Joel Dixon Smith, 33, in Shalimar, when Smith shot him in the back multiple times and in the head once, Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley said. Smith told Myers the firearms were “in the auto “.
“When someone shoots a law officer, they have nothing to lose”, she said. After reportedly shooting Deputy Myers, Smith drove to the Comfort Inn and Suites, 148 John Sims Parkway, in Niceville, where he barricaded himself inside a room. He barricaded himself inside and deputies eventually fired tear gas into his room. Meyers also died at the same hospital, the agency said.
No one else was hurt.
“We heard ‘pop, pop, pop, ‘” said Annie Allen, the witness who called 911.
At the scene of the shooting, Wray said he and another man tried to talk to the deputy, but he didn’t respond.
Wray said he used his phone to take photos of the fleeing truck.
“Sheriff Al Nienhuis and the men and women of the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (are) sending warm thoughts and prayers to each of you”, that agency posted before news of Myers’ death broke. “When they brought the guy out, he was on a gurney with his face covered”.
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Deputy Myers was white.
