Veteran, volunteer firefighter threatening suicide opens fire on deputies

PBSO: Man threatening suicide opens fire on deputies
Sun-Sentinel.com - Fort Lauderdale, FL,USA
By Jerome Burdi
5:01 PM EST, March 4, 2009

WEST DELRAY - A suicidal resident at Kings Point retirement community got into a shootout with deputies who showed up shortly before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday to try to prevent the man from killing himself, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.

"Put it down! Put it down! Put it down!" deputies screamed outside the condo at 760 Normandy P.

But Dallas Adkins, Jr., 59, fired his rifle at them and the bullet hit a ballistic shield, investigators said. The two deputies shot back several times.

"Deputies knocked on the door, and he answered the door with a weapon in his hand," sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.

It is unclear where Adkins shot from, deputies said. The window next to his door was blown out.

Neighbors described him as a gentleman loner who helped ladies with their grocery bags and called men "Sir." Adkins rented a one-bedroom condominium at Kings Point for about a year and worked at a nearby Publix grocery store. In Colorado, where he grew up, Adkins volunteered for about 20 years as a firefighter in Golden, a suburb of Denver. He gave it up about 10 years ago, officials there said.

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