A series of events led up to a Clay County deputy shooting a young, suicidal man who was armed with a gun during a confrontation with authorities behind a business near 80 Blanding Blvd., according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Michelle Cook said it began with a 911 call about 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 8, that 20-year-old Daniel Siewert was livestreaming on TikTok and making concerning statements about committing suicide.
Deputies made contact with him at his Orange Park home on Carol Drive and did see a firearm on a table inside, but he did not show any signs of injuries and denied making any statements of self-harm, Cook said. So they left.
He does have a history of suicidal threats, but “at that point he did not quality for Baker Act [involuntary custody by a mental health institution],” she explained. “When we talk to somebody, and we see no physical signs of any injury or any self-harm and they make no statements of self-harm, we have to take the for what they say.”
About an hour later, a family member called the Sheriff’s Office saying Siewert advised he was going to kill himself by taking an excessive amount of ibuprofen and “that he was ready to take us on, referring to law enforcement, and if the law enforcement officers came back to the house, he would be ready for us.”
Deputies responded back to the home, but Siewert had left on foot. The Sheriff’s Office Real Time Crime Center spotted him on camera walking in a business area on Blanding with what appeared to be a firearm,” Cook said. Deputies quickly set up a perimeter trying to locate and talk with him.
At about 2:30 p.m. dispatch received another phone call that he was behind a green dumpster and texting about having a shootout with law enforcement, the sheriff said. The deputies were able to narrow his location behind the dumpster and a store, and “At one point, Siewert then points a firearm at a deputy, and another deputy shoots Mr. Siewert.”
She said he was still able to talk and yell but was convinced to give himself up. He was taken to a hospital, but his condition was not released.
“These types of calls are very scary, we respond to them quite often where either the person calls, or a family member calls, and says this person is wanting to have suicide by cop or have a shootout with cops, and that’s very concerning,” Cook said. With no one injured, “it speaks to the professionalism and training of our deputies.”
The deputy shooting marks the second in Clay County this year, equaling 2025’s total.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Young Orange Park man threatening shootout is shot by deputy
Reporting by Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Scott Butler, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
