A man is dead following a deputy-involved shooting Friday night outside a Gainesville inn about 2 miles south of UF.
At about 11 p.m., a group of deputies with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office descended upon the Scottish Inns Southwest, located at 4341 SW 13th St., to serve an arrest warrant to 39-year-old Gino Martin Palazzolo, of Gainesville, said Lt. Brandon Kutner, a spokesperson with the sheriff’s office.
Standing in a parking lot and armed with a handgun, Palazzolo refused arrest and made threats to harm himself or force deputies to shoot him, Kutner said.
He then ran behind and around the inn, ending up in the parking lot again, where he was met by another group of deputies. There, with the gun still in hand, Palazzolo ignored commands to drop his weapon, and he repeated his threats.
About 30 to 35 minutes following the initial confrontation, deputies fired, killing him on the scene, Kutner said.
Kutner said he believes the warrant deputies attempted to issue Palazzolo with a civil order of arrest for a writ of bodily attachment for about $3,000, which is usually issued in cases of back child support.
The deputies involved in the shooting, Charles Drake and Jasper Stephenson, were placed on temporary administrative leave per ACSO policy regarding deputy-involved shootings, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting, and ACSO’s Office of Professional Standards is conducting an internal investigation, Kutner said.
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