LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A Eustis man believes a stray bullet from a deputy-involved shooting wound up in his house. Now the Lake County Sheriff’s Office states they’re investigating.
Miguel Muniz lives down the street from where Lake County deputies shot and killed Tracy Richards on Thursday morning.
” When I got up, I walk, I see a hole in the garage,” Muniz stated. “So I said, ‘That doesn’t look right. That wasn’t there yesterday.'”.
When he raised the garage door, Muniz states he rapidly recognized the hole wasn’t just vandalism. He saw an even more massive hole in his car.
” It’s gotta be a bullet from someplace,” he keeps in mind thinking.
Muniz states he walked around the car, lowered the back seat and realized there was also a hole in the metal bar at the back of the trunk and in the rear seats.
” That’s where my child constantly sits down right there in the early morning when we leave your house, so I was like, ‘Oh my God,'” Muniz stated.
Later that morning, he saw the news. Deputies had shot and killed Tracy Richards right throughout the street. Muniz figured the 2 scenes need to be connected and called the police, still worried about how close a call the bullet might’ve been.
The report Channel 9 obtained from police shows the reacting officer wrote that he believed “that a single round did go into the garage door” which Muniz’s house “is in line with where the shooting happened that morning.”.
” You’re not safe in your own home,” Muniz stated. “I do not know what to say. I was, like, ‘This is insane.’ I didn’t understand what to believe.”.
Muniz says the reacting Eustis police officer handed him a card with a case number on it and left.
A day later on, Muniz hadn’t heard from police, so he sounded them. He states he was informed to call the sheriff’s office since the shooting involved their deputies. However, when he reached Lake County Sheriffs Office, he says they told him he had to talk with police.
Muniz said he didn’t comprehend exactly what was taking so long and why no one had called just to show they’re working to investigate the concern.
” They examined to make sure all the bullets were accounted for,” Muniz said, remembering his discussion with the officer. There was one missing, and I say, ‘Well, it’s gotta be that.'”.
A spokesperson for LCSO tells me that Monday morning the report and evidence was sent to their attorney.
The attorney is evaluating it and will send it to their insurance company to repair the garage door damage if they are accountable.