People seen fleeing home before Hillsborough deputies' murder-suicide there

A neighbor said that before he heard gunshots, authorities ordered a man to come out of the home near the St. Augustine beach. A number of deputies were on vacation there.

ST. AUGUSTINE — Authorities were seen evacuating people Saturday evening through the second-story windows of a beach vacation rental where a Hillsborough County sheriff’s detective killed another deputy then himself, a neighbor said.

Detective Daniel Leyden, 31, shot and killed a deputy with whom he had a romantic relationship before turning the gun on himself, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The shooting occurred in the bedroom of a vacation home in the Butler Beach area of Anastasia Island near St. Augustine.

The two were heard arguing in a bedroom by other deputies on vacation with them just before gunshots rang out, the Sheriff’s Office said. The office referred questions to investigators with the Sheriff’s Office in St. John’s County, where the shootings occurred The office did not return requests for comment Sunday and Monday.

A man who lives next door said dozens of deputies swarmed the rental at 5318 State Road A1A S after dark Saturday and ordered his family to stay inside their home. An hour later, the family heard the sound of gunfire, said the neighbor, William Wallace, 70.

Meantime, they saw people being evacuated from the home using ladders and heard authorities on a loudspeaker ordering a man to come outside with his hands over his head, Wallace said.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsborough/2022/01/31/people-seen-fleeing-home-before-hillsborough-deputies-murder-suicide-there/