A suicidal man was shot and killed by Lake County sheriff’s deputies shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday at the Lady Lake Mobile Home Park on Griffin View Drive after he reportedly pointed a gun at deputies.
The sheriff’s office had received multiple calls of a man trying to shoot himself.
Deputies located the man, holding a handgun under his chin, said Sgt. James Vachon of the sheriff’s office.
The man reportedly pulled the trigger, but the gun did not go off.
“He re-racked the gun and pointed it at our officers,” Vachon said.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
The investigation has been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Vachon said turning the matter over to FDLE any time there is an officer-involved shooting is “routine.”
The man has not been formally identified.
Records from the Lake County Property Appraiser’s Office indicate that Howard and Becky Roudebush own the mobile home at Lot 48 at Lady Lake Mobile Home Park and moved here from Apple Creek, Ohio. He also went by the name Harold and was known as “Hal” in the neighborhood.
Neighbors described their neighbor as being in his 50s and working as a male nurse. They said they believed he had worked at The Villages Regional Hospital. They also said he was from Ohio and a car with Ohio license plates was parked in the carport of the mobile home. Neighbors said he and his wife had moved in within the past year. They also said they believed the wife had gone back north to Ohio.
Neighbors also described their neighbor as being “negative” and having a “lot of bottled-up anger.”
Residents of the 55-plus Lady Lake Mobile Home Park said it is a quiet and friendly community.
They also remember the Ground Hog Day Tornado that in 2007 cut a path of destruction through the mobile home park, killing one resident there.
