‘Real life nightmare’: LCSO officials release details on suspects they say shot 3 deputies

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Lake County Sheriff’s Office released more information Saturday that revealed the horrific situation deputies stepped into Friday where investigators said three suspects opened fire.

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Deputies walked into a home on Brookside Drive in Eustis where a family of suspects ambushed deputies, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A total of three Lake County deputies were shot. 28-year-old Master Deputy Sheriff Bradley Michael Link did not survive.

READ: ‘Part of our family’: Sheriff releases name of deputy killed in line of duty in Lake County

Two other deputies, Harold Howell and Stefano Gargano, were still in the hospital as of Saturday evening.

Channel 9 was told Gargano is still fighting for his life.

“This was a real life nightmare that unfolded before our eyes,” LCSO Public Information Officer Lt. John Herrell said.

Herrell said deputies originally responded to a disturbance. A woman appeared to be experiencing a mental health episode.

“She was talking incoherently, out of her mind, talking about spiritual stuff, she was attacking people,” Herrell said.

Channel 9 spoke to the woman’s neighbor, Abagail Wilbanks, who said the woman attacked her and her father while she was in her yard.

“Because she kept hitting us, and he came, and she attacked him. She ripped his hair out, and we couldn’t get her off of him,” Wilbanks said.

Herrell confirmed the woman was Baker Acted, but she then made a request to deputies. He said she asked them to check on the home down the street. It was her own home.

READ: Central Florida officials react to shooting in Lake County

There, deputies thought they could be responding to a burglary in progress. But in reality, Herrell said there were three armed suspects: the man who was the husband of the Baker Acted woman and two daughters.

Deputies heard commotion inside the home and saw an open door. Herrell said they started to walk in.

“At that point, they were met with heavy, heavy gunfire,” Herrell said.

The gunfire knocked Master Deputy Bradley Michael Link to the ground inside the home. Master Deputy Harold Howell was shot in the arm but managed to get away from the gunfire.

Lake County’s Street Crimes Unit, including four SWAT officers, then breached the home to try to rescue Link who was still inside the house. That’s when SWAT Officer Stefano Gargano was hit in the arm and abdomen, Herrell said.

READ: 2 LCSO deputies hurt in ‘disturbance’ shooting remain hospitalized, department says

Investigators said all three suspects are believed to have fired at deputies. All three suspects suffered what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds, Herrell said in a press conference Saturday.

Deputies said they found the two female suspects dead inside the home and one injured male suspect who later died.

They also are piecing together who this family of suspects was.

There is evidence the family believed in what was called an anti-government ideology and prepared for the end of time, Herrell said.

“This has been described as a bunker style dwelling. They had stock piled firearms, ammunition, MREs, canned goods and nonperishable food items,” Herrell said.

There is also a question about the woman who originally attacker her neighbors. Did she lure deputies to the home? Lake County Sheriff’s Office said that’s still being investigated but did say the three suspects ambushed deputies.

Investigators have not yet identified the suspects. Channel 9 has learned that the two female suspects were in the early 20s.

Stay with WFTV.com and watch Eyewitness News for updates on this developing story.

‘Part of our family’: Sheriff releases name of deputy killed in line of duty in Lake County (Sabrina Maggiore, WFTV.com/WFTV)

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