A Polk County man was killed in an armed standoff with deputies Wednesday afternoon, according to the sheriff’s office.
The shooting happened along Slocumb Road in unincorporated Haines City.
According to Sheriff Grady Judd, the sheriff’s office got a call from a person who said his brother, 41-year-old Adayn Rodriguez, said he was going to kill himself and his wife, 35-year-old Karla Rodriguez.
“In fact, he told his brother, ‘how convenient is it that it’s Karla’s birthday, today’s the day that she’s going to die, and then I’m going to kill myself,’” Judd said.
When deputies arrived, they tried to de-escalate the situation, but Adayn Rodriguez came out onto a second-floor balcony, pointed a gun at the deputies, and then went back inside.
For about an hour, deputies continued to try to get the suspect to de-escalate, but in the meantime, the man made multiple calls to 911 to try to speak to a deputy he knew from working as a mechanic.
“The deputy who knew him tried to de-escalate the situation and then at this point in time, when we knew how out-of-control that Adayn was, try to get his wife Karla to come out of the house, and apparently she wouldn’t,” Judd said. “This goes on for approximately one hour. Then Aiden says ‘you know when I commit suicide, it’s really not going to hurt because I smoked a lot of meth.’”
The sheriff said Adayn Rodriguez eventually went back out onto the balcony and pointed his gun at one of the deputies, but this time, a lieutenant shot the gunman as he went back inside.
“We had an entry team on the other side of the house immediately make entry into the house and engaged Aiden and shot him several times, and he’s deceased,” Judd said.
After taking out the gunman, the deputies found Karla Rodriguez inside the home. However, at this stage of the investigation, the circumstances surrounding her death are not fully known, Judd said.
According to the sheriff, the couple had three children together, two 4-year-old twins and a 5-year-old, although Karla Rodriguez also had two other children aside from those three.
“It’s a good thing the children weren’t there,” he said. “They were with their grandmother.”
Judd said a relative told authorities the couple had ongoing issues for five years, with Karla Rodriguez being previously arrested for domestic violence against her husband. Adayn Rodriguez was also said to have a history of aggravated assault and domestic violence.
With regards to the gunman’s death, Judd said it was Adayn’s choice to be shot, not the deputies.
“If you point a gun at us, we’re going to shoot you,” he said. “We’re going to shoot you a lot. We’re not going to let you hurt us, and we’re going to do everything we can to stop you from hurting your wife, neighbors, other people in the area.”
“We didn’t choose to shoot Adayn. He chose for us to shoot him, and we obliged him,” Judd said.
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Source: wfla
