Officials say a Lake County SWAT team
shot and killed an armed man who charged deputies after holding his wife and her brother hostage in a Eustis home early Thursday morning.
EUSTIS — A tense threehour hostage situation in a Eustis neighborhood ended in a hail of bullets early Thursday when five members of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team opened fire on an armed man who charged toward them pointing a gun at deputies, an agency official said.
Nobody else was hurt in the incident at a home on North Center Street behind the Grove Square plaza on State Road 19, according to the Lake County Sheriff ’s Office, which assisted the Eustis Police Department.
Killed in the confrontation was Tracy Alan Richards, 55, sheriff’s Lt. John Herrell said. He had been holding his wife, Wendy Lee Richards, 51, and her brother Gary Lee Babb, 47, hostage, he said.
Deputies tried to get Richards to surrender peacefully as he held a gun to his head behind the shopping center, which is adjacent to the home, Herrell said.
But Richards, apparently realizing that he was cornered by the SWAT team, headed toward deputies with his weapon, Herrell said. The SWAT members then shot him, he said.
“This was a very scary situation, and there were a lot of lives at risk,” Herrell said. “We’re glad that no one else was hurt.”
The five deputies, whose names were not released, were placed on paid administrative leave pending a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the shooting, customary in officer-
involved shootings.
Lake deputy sheriffs — including SWAT team members — do not wear body cameras that record video. Herrell said the Sheriff’s Office currently has no plans to obtain body cameras.
“We’ve seen cases where what you see on [body camera] video is not what’s perceived by the deputy,” he said.
The incident began about 3:40 a.m., when Eustis police received a call from Wendy Lee Richards that her husband had broken into the blue two-story home with white trim and was threatening to kill himself, his wife and brother-in-law, authorities said.
“They’ve been going through a separation and possibly a divorce,” Herrell said of Tracy and Wendy Richards.
Eustis police called the Sheriff’s Office for assistance. Deputies, hostage negotiators and officers spent nearly three hours urging Richards to surrender, according to reports.
“He refused to speak to them,” Herrell said. “The brother-inlaw, who was one of the hostages, was acting as the go-between between the negotiators and the suspect.”
Richards then came out of the home about 6:35 a.m., holding a gun to his head, Herrell said.
“He saw some deputies in the area,” Herrell said. “He yelled some insults to them. Obviously, he had no intention of cooperating.”
Richards, still holding a gun to his head, walked into an alleyway between the house and the shopping center with SWAT deputies following him, authorities said. A sheriff ’s sharpshooter took a position on the roof of a nearby home, Herrell said.
Richards eventually reached a chain-link fence, Herrell said.
“He had nowhere else to go,” Herrell said. “And at that point, still with the gun in his hand, he confronted the deputies, charged at them. At which point they shot at him to defend themselves … We had all the pieces in place to hopefully bring this to a peaceful resolve. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. And he decided to end it his way … This truly was a last resort.”
Mary Moeller, 70, who lives in an apartment across the street from the home, said she was jarred awake by the shots.
“I heard very loud noises,” she said. “I didn’t know what it was … But I’m glad to hear that everyone else inside the home is OK.”
Moeller, who moved into her apartment several months ago, called it a peaceful neighborhood.
“I would never imagine something like this,” she said.
Richards had moved out of the home several weeks ago when he and his wife decided to separate, authorities said. However, in mid-June, he broke into the home and “ransacked” it, Herrell said.
His wife called police at the time and said her husband was threatening to kill himself, authorities said. Orange County deputy sheriffs eventually tracked Richards to Orlando International Airport as he prepared to board a flight “somewhere up north,” and conducted a “well-being check” on him, Herrell said.
“But he did not meet the criteria for a Baker Act,” Herrell said, referring to the Florida law that allows law-enforcement officers to commit a person to a mentalhealth facility if they pose a threat to themselves or others.
According to state records, Richards is a licensed general contractor who operated out of Eustis. Wendy Richards on Thursday said she preferred not to talk about the shooting incident or her husband.
A criminal background check showed that Richards has had a string of arrests in Central Florida dating back decades.
In December 2010, he was charged with grand theft for apparently stealing an automobile and sentenced to 10 years probation and ordered to pay $76,000 in restitution, according to court records. He violated that probation in 2012, according to records.
Richards also was charged in 1992 for a hit-and-run incident and for resisting arrest with violence, records show. In 1988, he was arrested and charged by Kissimmee police for cocaine possession, according to records.
Just a few blocks north of downtown Eustis, the Groves Shopping Center is the heartbreaking and tragic site of the Dorothy Reid Lewis case in 1993.
Lewis and her two daughters — Jamilya, 6, and Jasmine, 3, — were walking out of a WinnDixie store at the plaza at the time after buying items for a church supper when they were kidnapped. Lewis was raped and then watched as her two daughters were killed and their bodies stashed in bushes off Hicks Ditch Road. Lewis was then shot and left for dead. She managed to crawl nearly a half mile to get help.
Richard Henyard, 18, was executed in 2008 for his part in the crime. Alfonza Smalls, who was 14 at the time, is currently serving a life sentence. mcomas@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5718; anmartin@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5120