Felon wanted for deadly shooting in Poinciana killed by SWAT team in Polk County, deputies say

POLK COUNTY, Fla. — The Polk County sheriff said his SWAT team had no choice when members shot and killed a homicide suspect early Monday after a standoff.

Deputies said Rudy Arenas was shot and killed around 3 a.m. Monday by three Polk County SWAT officers at a home on Wood Lane in Poinciana, not far from the Osceola County line.

The incident began around 7:23 p.m. Sunday, when Polk County deputies responded to Finch Lane in Poinciana for reports of a shooting, officials said.

Deputies said a woman called 911 and said she and her 40-year-old husband, Orlando Riviera-Vasquez, had just been shot by Arenas after agreeing to meet with him.

Deputies said when they arrived, they found two people shot inside a Nissan Altima parked in the road. Inside the car they found Riviera-Vasquez dead in the driver’s seat and the woman in the passenger seat suffering from a gunshot wound but alive.

“It was just covered in cops all, all the way down the street,” said neighbor Eri Van Baez. “Then I went inside because they told me to go inside in case anything happened.”

Another call led deputies to Wood Lane, where they found Arenas, who was threatening himself and others, and barricaded himself in a bathroom.

Polk County SWAT members watched from outside the house as deputies secured the area.

Around 3 a.m., a Polk County SWAT team entered the home and attempted to take Arenas into custody.

Deputies said they fired gas containers into the home and shot Arenas with nonlethal beanbag rounds. Arenas dropped his firearm, then picked it up again and started to raise the weapon at SWAT members when three of them opened fire, killing him.

“Then he comes back out of the bathroom with the gun in his pocket and his hand in his pocket,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “He immediately goes down, he picks the gun up and he points it at the SWAT team. That was his last bad choice.”

Judd said SWAT members had no choice but to shoot Arenas.

Deputies said they recovered a handgun with a round chambered.

Officials said Arenas has 17 previous arrests in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and two previous arrests in Florida, including drug possession, drug sales and delivery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, petit theft, felony shoplifting, eluding police and burglary.

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