A passerby with a concealed weapon shot and killed a man who was attacking a sheriff's deputy in Estero, Florida, Monday morning.
"There was a lot of other lives that he was putting at risk, including mine and my daughter's," Nicole Ambrosini, who witnessed the event, told NBC-2.
"I saw a car approaching me from behind at a very fast rate."
The car "then swerved onto the shoulder on the left side and had to have been around 120 miles per hour.”
Deputy First Class Dean Bardes attempted to pull the man over, ending up in a high-speed chase. Eventually the man did pull over, only to pull the deputy from his car and beat him.
"He just kept beating him and beating him," Shanta Holditch, another witness, told the local news station. The suspect was "throwing him to the ground and punching him in all different directions."
The bystander had by then pulled over and approached the deputy and the suspect, who was reportedly armed. The bystander warned the suspect to stop or he would shoot.
According to Holditch, the suspect "refused to get off the officer and the officer kept yelling, 'shoot him, shoot him, shoot him,' and then he shot him. I think approximately three shots were heard."
"I heard like three shots. He fell down on top of the police officer," Mr. Smith, also a witness, told NBC-2. "After a moment, the police officer rolled him back over, got on his mic, then rolled over back on the ground besides the guy."
"The guy that protected, shot the bad guy, was a guy that pulled over on the ramp and saw the guy beating the officer. He pulled out his gun," said Smith.
According to video captured by a witness, hosted by Wink News, an emergency crew came and attempted to perform CPR on the suspect, but were unsuccessful.
Bardes was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released. The Lee County Sheriff's office is waiting until they notify the deceased's next of kin before releasing his name or any other information.
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