RIVERVIEW, FLORIDA — An officer shot and killed an 88-year-old man inside his home during a welfare check. A neighbor was concerned about the man, who they hadn’t seen for a few days, and called police to see if they could check on him. An officer arrived to the home and began searching, announcing multiple times that she was with the Sheriff’s office.
The officer finds the man, identified as Ronald Ehrich, but he has a gun and is seemingly unaware of who the person inside his home is.
Ehrich goes into defensive mode, moving towards the officer with his gun. The officer takes cover inside a nearby room, trying to tell Ehrich that she is with the Sheriff’s office and there for a welfare check after a concerned neighbor called.
“Come out into the open and sit down or I’ll blow you right out of the water,” Elrich said to the officer.
The officer replied, “Sir, I don’t want to do this. Please put the gun down.”
She continues to plead with Elrich to put the gun down.
“Nobody is in trouble,” the officer tells him. “Your neighbor was concerned about you.”
That’s when Elrich again moves toward Castillo. The officer’s voice gets louder, “Sir, put the gun down.”
Elrich moves into frame and is shot multiple times by the officer, who immediately gets on the radio to report that shots were fired.
Elrich did not fire any shots.
A neighbor, Angel Ortiz, told reporters that Ehrich was a retired law enforcement officer, and had trouble hearing and would sometimes rely on reading lips.
Ortiz said he thinks his elderly neighbor either couldn’t hear the officer’s multiple efforts to identify herself and deescalate the situation.
“If he knew she was a police officer, he would have complied right away,” said Ortiz.
via local media
The Sheriff said that Ehrich lived alone, and the situation all around is an absolute tragedy.
“We will try to investigate what led to this,” the sheriff said. “But this is tragic for the deputy, for the sheriff’s office and for the man’s family.”
There is a good possibility that Ehrich believed that someone had broken into his home, and was trying to defend himself against what he believed to be an intruder. If the officer had waited to go inside until backup arrived, the scenario may have played out differently. We’ll never know, and it may have been impossible to communicate to Ehrich that they were not a threat to him or his home.
The officer didn’t wait to enter the home, likely because she believed that the man inside could need medical assistance. It’s a terrible situation, as stated previously, and I can only wish peace at some point for everyone involved.
The badge cam video can be viewed below.
