BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Deputies shot and killed a man in Brevard County late Monday night. They said he aimed at them with what looked like a real rifle. Eric Bricker told deputies he wanted a confrontation and referred to himself as Billy the Kid. When he aimed a pellet gun at officers, deputies opened fire.
Crime scene technicians were combing the property around the Micco home Tuesday, where 43-year-old Eric Bricker was shot to death after a confrontation with Brevard County sheriff's deputies.
The deadly incident started with a threatening call to 911.
"He was distraught. He didn't want to live anymore. He was going to kill family members and himself. He asked us to send deputies to the residence and he was going to kill them once they got there as well," said Lieutenant Tod Goodyear, Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
The man's brother-in-law, Mark Chatham, told WFTV Tuesday that Bricker was unemployed, bi-polar and had been drinking in the hours before the shooting outside his cousin's home on Riverview Drive.
"He just got depressed and with him being bi-polar, it culminated into him doing something stupid," Chatham said.
Deputies said that Bricker had what appeared to be a weapon aimed at deputies. It was a pellet gun, but the sheriff's office said deputies didn't know that at the time.
"Because of that movement and the aggressive nature they were forced to fire upon him," Goodyear said.
Bricker's cousin, who did not want to be identified, was at home at the time of the shooting. She told WFTV she didn't hear a thing. She didn't realize anything was wrong until she saw sheriff's deputies surrounding her home.
"I wish there's something else they could have done. I don't know," she said.
The four deputies involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave pending an FDLE investigation.
It is the third deputy-involved shooting for the sheriff's office this year, and in each case, deputies said they were forced to fire their weapons.
WFTV
