Man Shot By Off-Duty Sheriff's Deputy Identified

Reason I keep saying the deputy may not have been justified in opening fire on the vehicle is because I had a similar problem myself, although I'm a security officer and I do the same thing that deputy was doing--pulling security for apartment complexes.

More than likely this deputy was what's called a 'courtesy-officer'. Basically; a courtesy officer is either a police-officer or security-guard (or if they're both--great!) who pulls security for the apartment-complex on their spare time and in exchange for their service the apartment-management grants them either a free or discounted apartment.

Anyways. My job at this one apartment-complex was to assist a sheriff's deputy with providing security for the complex. (My boss is also a sheriff--though now retired--and the security firm he runs is composed of both regular security guards and police-officers who double as security-guards.) The complex, located in a rough part of town, was still undergoing clean-up phase. Basically what this means is that a team of police &/or security-guards sweep the entire complex from top to bottom, stopping and questioning people, asking for ID, running them for warrants, asking what apartment they live in or if they don't live there--who they're visiting, and if we determine they have no business being on the complex or if we find drugs and/or illegal weapons on their person after we search them they get forced to leave the property. If they refuse to? They get arrested on the spot and get cited for criminal trespass.

Now me and this sheriff tried to stop a vehicle and question the driver & passengers because the vehicle was leaving through an entry gate. (Where they were coming out was NOT the exit). My partner, the sheriff, flashes his light at the car and waves at them to stop. The car slowed a bit but still kept on going, almost knocking my partner down because it was that close. If my partner would have fallen down and the car kept going then he would've been run over by the back wheels.

My partner reached for his weapon. To me that was an instant cue to reach for mine and be prepared to draw. I then ran around to the driver's side of the vehicle, drew and aimed at the driver. Finally the car stopped.

Later after my partner said I did right in drawing my gun my boss told me that I was wrong. And he stated if I had enough time to draw my weapon then I had enough time to move out of the way. Well...it wasn't me that was going to get hit by a car---it was my partner. I was defending him.