(This story was updated with new information.)
A Volusia Sheriff’s deputy was saved by his body camera after a bullet aimed for his chest hit the device and is believed to have ricocheted off and into his shoulder, Sheriff Mike Chitwood said during a press conference Monday night, March 2.
The deputy was also shot in the leg, Chitwood said. He sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was conscious and alert.
The shooter, Luis Diaz Polanco, 31, was charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder and is being held without bond at the Volusia County jail.
Volusia Sheriff’s deputy was investigating a battery incident in Deltona
Volusia Deputy Jose Rivera, a Deltona resident who has been with the department since 2023, was investigating a battery call in Deltona when he knocked on the door of a home in the 2600 block of Candler Drive. Polanco answered with a box in his hand. He saw the deputy and slammed door and flipped the deadbolt, Chitwood said. He then walked to a sliding door at the back of the house.
Rivera sent his partner toward the rear of the house, but Polanco came back to the front door, still holding the box.
Chitwood said Polanco opened the door, pulled a tan Glock from of the box and began shooting at Rivera, hitting the body camera on his chest. Preliminary reports say Rivera returned fire “four, five, six” times and Polanco fired just as many, according to Chitwood.
Deputy taken to Deltona hospital, then airlifted to Halifax Health in Daytona Beach
As other deputies arrived on scene, they pulled Rivera out of the way of gunfire, got him into a car and transported him to Halifax Health | UF Health Medical Center of Deltona, where he was stabilized, then airlifted by AirOne to Halifax Health in Daytona Beach.
In the meantime, Polanco still wasn’t in custody, and Chitwood said that even though Rivera had been shot twice and was being transported to the hospital, he still had the presence of mind to tell the other deputies what the suspect was wearing, and other identifying factors that could lead him them to Polanco quickly.
Suspect described as a ‘violent, schizophrenic’ by Seminole County authorities
Chitwood said Polanco has a history of mental illness and violence and that he was listed by Lake Mary authorities in Seminole County as a “violent, schizophrenic” person. Volusia deputies had also Baker Acted him in the past.
The sheriff said today’s call to Deltona stemmed from an earlier incident that took place in DeLand with Polanco’s mother. The mother filed a complaint later in the day claiming Polanco “was violent” and told deputies where they could find him.
“I can’t say enough about the deputies,” Chitwood said during the press conference, mentioning Rivera’s partner, Deputy Jacob Gomez-Lopez, a trainee who had been on the street for just eight days.
He said law enforcement would be out at the scene “for a while,” but they don’t expect to get much more until the morning.
Chitwood kept returning to how the first bullet hit the body camera.
“If you don’t believe in God,” he said, “things like this make you believe in God.”
Managing Editor David Wersinger contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Deltona man, 31, charged with attempted murder in deputy shooting
Reporting by Ashley Varese, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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