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Volusia County deputy fatally shoots armed man in Osteen

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office says a deputy was forced to shoot and kill a man in a car Saturday night after he refused to drop a gun.

It happened just before 11 p.m. on State Road 415 in Osteen where two deputies stopped to investigate what appeared to be an abandoned car.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the deputies approached the vehicle, one on each side of the car, and saw Jeffrey Sims, 59, in the driver’s seat with a gun in the back seat within his reach.

The deputies say they ordered Sims to remain still and stay away from the gun but he instead took his shirt off and used it to cover the driver’s side window, attempting to block their view.

When the shirt fell, the deputies said Sims was in the back seat of the two-door car, holding the gun.

Sims refused to drop the gun and was shot by one of the deputies, identified as 37-year-old Miguel Kent.

The Sheriff’s Office says Deputy Kent joined the Sheriff’s Office in October 2003.

As is standard procedure, Kent will be placed on paid temporary leave while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates the shooting.