He Found a Man Asleep in His Laundry Room and Called 911. Minutes Later, He Fired 12 Times.

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DELAND, FL — A man living in a camper on a DeLand property shot and killed a trespasser on the night of Sept. 1 after, by his own account, the man ignored repeated warnings and came at him, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.

Volusia County deputies and DeLand police officers responded around 10:47 p.m. to North Boulevard Court after a caller reported he had shot a trespasser, as reported by WESH. Deputies found the caller standing on the side of the road with his hands raised.

The other man was lying in the driveway with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The initial investigation indicates the shooter lives in a camper at the property, deputies said. The man who was killed had stayed there before but was no longer allowed to remain. The night of Sept. 1, he was found asleep in the laundry room of the house, which led to an argument and the initial trespassing call.

The shooter told investigators the man advanced toward him despite warnings to back away or he would be shot. He then fired several rounds, deputies said.

The shooter also spoke with WESH off camera. He said he came home and found a 38-year-old man sleeping in his laundry room, a man who used to stay there off and on but was no longer welcome because he had been getting into trouble and had just been released from jail. He said he called 911 to report the trespassing and told the man to leave. The man would not. He said he gave him dozens of warnings. The man kept coming and lunged at him. He said he feared for his life and fired 12 times.

Two details in his account will matter to detectives and, eventually, to the State Attorney. He says he called 911 before anything went physical, and he stayed on scene afterward and met deputies in the road with his hands up. Both are the right moves, and both are documented.

The harder question is the threat itself. A man refusing to leave is not a threat to anyone’s life. A man closing the distance after repeated warnings may be, depending on his size, what he is holding, and what he does when he gets there. Nothing in the sheriff’s account so far says the man was armed, and twelve rounds is a number investigators will measure against the threat the shooter describes. I am not drawing a conclusion either way. That is exactly the work detectives spent several hours on that night and were still doing the next morning, Sept. 2.

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Jamie Padilla was working nearby when it happened. “All of a sudden, I just heard these loud shots,” he told WESH. “A minute or two later, boom, all these cops just started pulling up.”

Deputies have not publicly named the man who was killed or the man who shot him. The investigation remains ongoing, and no charging decision has been announced.