Mario Simoes, 43

Deland, Florida
March 19, 2017

Agencies: Deland Police Department - Florida | Volusia County Sheriff's Office Florida

Cause of death: Shooting

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Last updated: almost 6 years ago

Overview

What started as a call to police for a possibly suicidal man Sunday evening led to a high-speed crash and a police involved shooting near the Publix on International Speedway Boulevard.

The man, 45, whose name has not yet been released, was killed near the intersection of Amelia Avenue and Old Daytona Road. The incident started shortly after 5 p.m. about a mile east of there, at 919 Biscayne Blvd. where the law office of the man's wife is located.

Preliminary information indicates the man was shooting at a building and then DeLand police officers came under fire when they arrived on scene, according to acting DeLand Police Chief Randel Henderson and Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.

Bullet holes were in the side of a law office, Simoes Law Group. P.A. The owners of the legal business are 45-year-old Mario Simoes and his wife, Kimberly Simoes, state records show.

The man left the scene in a Mercedes at a high rate of speed traveling west on Old Daytona Road, with stop sticks being used twice, before crashing into a couple leaving Lowe's in a white pickup truck, causing them to go airborne, Chitwood said.

"We have three independent witnesses who say, including the people in the truck, who say it felt like two minutes where they just kept hearing deputies and DeLand police officers say 'Drop the gun, drop the gun, drop the gun,' before he was fatally shot," Chitwood said.

Two sheriff's deputies and one DeLand police officer fired their weapons, Chitwood said.