One dead, one injured after police standoff in Palm Bay

Investigators say a man shot and wounded his wife as she called 911 for help, hours before SWAT team members stormed the small cottage home and shot him to death in a daring rescue.

The woman, in her 30s, remains in critical condition at Holmes Regional Medical Center. She is suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds inflicted by the man during the confrontation, police said.

The shooter, who investigators say was left paralyzed when he was shot in a separate incident several years ago, was pronounced dead at scene. The officers involved with the shooting were not injured and were placed on administrative leave with pay.

The domestic incident unfolded as police dispatchers received a call at 7:17 p.m. Tuesday from a woman who said her husband was cutting himself and armed with a gun threatening to kill her, according to Lt. Mike Bandish with the Palm Bay Police Department.

“While we were responding, she said she was barricading herself in the bathroom, and we sent units right away,” Bandish said overnight.

While the officers were on their way to the Lockheed Street home, Bandish said, the woman was screaming on the phone saying that her husband was breaking in the door when her phone went dead.

Officers set up a perimeter around the darkened street and cottage complex. Several residents were also evacuated. Officers also found they were no longer were able to make contact with anyone inside.

The sheriff’s department, aided with the use of a bomb squad robot, entered the home. When SWAT members breached the door, they heard the victim saying she’d been shot.

Bandish said SWAT decided to go into the house to make the rescue.

Police: One wounded in Cocoa area shooting, search continues

Police confronted the suspect about 10:45 p.m. when they shot and killed him in the ensuing gunfire while trying to retrieve the woman. She was taken by ambulance to Holmes for treatment.

Palm Bay police did not release the identity of the suspect or the victim but confirmed that they are husband and wife. Neighbors described the husband as 'gentle,' and the couple had been struggling to deal with his medical condition.

Police were reviewing a case from several years ago, in which the man was shot while confronting an intruder, leaving him paralyzed.

The unidentified man's body - and the remains of a dead pitbull - were removed overnight and a city repairman was at the residence by 7 a.m. to repair some of the damage left behind during the standoff. The home - part of a small complex of cottage homes- sits in a heavily industrial area with a scattering of apartments and other housing.

Bandish said that FDLE will investigate the shooting, a protocol for officer-involved shootings.