Armed Man Shouting Racial Slurs Killed By Florida Police Officers

A 71-year-old man died on Thursday night after six Florida police officers fatally shot him, reports stated, after he reportedly fired a gun and shouted racial slurs at his neighbors. The police confronted him outside his home, the Toronto Sun reported. The incident took place in Lakeland which is between Orlando and Tampa in central Florida.

The man was identified as Jerry Roach who shouted racial slurs at neighbors, fired his gun into the air and pointed it at them from his front yard. The police were dispatched to 726 W Crescent Drive after the residents issued a complaint against Roach.

Officers reached the scene, surrounded his home and evacuated neighbors. A Tampa Bay Times report stated that the authorities tried getting Roach to come outside of the house but he refused. The reports said that he told the officers on the phone that he would bring his shotgun and was going to come outside and that the authorities would have to shoot him.

Reports say that the authorities instructed Roach to leave his house and surrender without the shotgun. However, he refused and continued to walk towards the officers after which six officers fired at him simultaneously. The report did not specify how many times Roach was struck by the bullets.

According to the Toronto Sun, Roach was taken to the Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The officers have been put on paid administrative leave while the investigation is ongoing. The Lakeland police have said that leave during an ongoing investigation is routine.

New York Daily News also revealed Roach’s criminal history that included three felony arrests and two misdemeanor busts. The report also stated that authorities have visited his home eight times in the last year.

This is not the first time that authorities had to rush to protect the residents after complaints of racial slurs and armed gunmen. According to the Standard-Speaker, Thomas J. Martonick, a 23-year-old man from Hazleton, a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Oct. 7 after police officials wrestled a gun from him after he threatened to shoot his neighbors.

Hazleton police were alerted to the incident on Carleton Avenue after midnight and arrested Martonick seizing the gun he allegedly brandished. The victims of the incident said that Martonick was never a friendly neighbor and screamed at them before too, but this time the situation got out of hand as he pulled out a gun, pointed it at them, shouted racial slurs and threatened to shoot and kill them, the police said.

Martonick was then charged with "three counts each terroristic threats and reckless endangerment, all misdemeanors." He was also charged with "five misdemeanor counts of simple assault, three summary counts of harassment and one count each disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and public drunkenness."