Gunfire greets 3 deputies

A distraught man who fired on the officers checking on him dies.

By EMILY NIPPS, Times Staff Writer
Published August 7, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Chris Zuppa] Hillsborough County sheriff's officials investigate the scene of a fatal shooting at 7701 Citronella Court on Monday. What began as a well check on a man described as distraught quickly escalated into a gun battle. The three deputies involved are on administrative leave with pay.

TAMPA - A man sent sheriff's deputies to check on his distraught brother Monday, concerned he might take his own life.

But the brother, armed with a shotgun and two handguns, fired at deputies and they fired back, the Sheriff's Office reported.

When it was all over, Paul Anthony Daniels, 46, was dead.

The incident escalated shortly after the first deputy arrived about 1:50 p.m. at the Citrus Park home at 7701 Citronella Court. Daniels was hostile and told the officer through the door that he had weapons, the Sheriff's Office said. The deputy called for backup.

Deputies Jerry White, 33, and Mark Curran, 25, who was in field training under White, pulled up in a marked patrol car and saw Daniels in the back yard. Another deputy, Art Lence, 52, arrived and parked in the middle of the street.

The deputies said Daniels pulled a shotgun and fired twice at Lence, striking his patrol car windshield and hood. Lence began shooting back. Daniels moved to another area of the yard, opened the back gate, and fired at White and Curran, who were crouched behind their patrol car, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said in a news release.

White and Curran fired back, and Daniels disappeared from view in the yard.

Sheriff's helicopters and several other deputies rushed to the scene to find Daniels dead.

All three deputies have been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending a completed review of the incident. The practice is standard, Carter said.

Lence has been with the Sheriff's Office for 16 years, White for nine years and Curran for six months.

It was unclear whose bullets killed Daniels.

Family members of Daniels either could not be reached or declined to comment.

For hours after the incident, the block surrounding Daniels' home was taped off by sheriff's detectives and crime scene investigators, who took photographs and scanned the ground for bullets and other evidence.

About 4 p.m., a man in a BMW arrived at the scene and burst through the tape until he was stopped by a detective. He appeared to be distraught as a detective seated him in the back of a crime scene unit van.

The shooting occurred near the corner of Citrus Pointe Drive and Citronella Court, in a neighborhood of middle-class suburban homes and across the street from where a new middle school is being constructed.

Neighbor Alice Winning, 74, said she was cutting the grass a few houses away when the shooting began so she didn't notice.

"We have the normal juvenile crimes here, but not usually stuff like this," she said.

Emily Nipps can be reached at 813 269-5313 or nipps@sptimes.com.

[Last modified August 7, 2007, 00:08:48]