Victim, suspect recovering after deputies 'in a no-win situation' open fire

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. - A few minutes before 8 p.m. on the last Sunday in January, dispatchers in Hernando County got several concerning calls. A man and woman had been drinking, and the woman said he had a gun.

Deputies headed to Cobb Road while 911 dispatchers talked to the victim, who said she was holding him down. But then the call went silent. 

When she was able to call back, she told dispatchers "he has the gun." 

According to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, the quick actions of responding deputies may have saved the lives of the victim and the suspect, however, both were injured in the struggle that followed.

Sheriff Al Nienhuis said 60-year-old Tracy Lemaster was ready for deputies to end his life. When dispatchers told deputies about the situation on Cobb Road, they rushed in to find two people struggling on the ground. 

Dash camera video shows the cruiser pull up to a fenced area.

The deputies jump out, leap the fence and take cover behind a nearby trailer.

A few yards away, Lemaster and the victim were on the ground. Nienhuis said Lemaster was on top of the woman and was waving a gun in the air. 

At some point, Nienhuis said Lemaster begged "just shoot me, just shoot me."

Instead, deputies pleaded with Lemaster to drop the gun. They shouted commands for him to release the victim and the weapon, but Lemaster persisted. One of the deputies opened fire, hitting Lemaster and the victim.

Sheriff Nienhuis said, "the deputies were put in a no-win situation, as they often are."

The victim was released from the hospital a few days after the incident. Lemaster, however, was still in doctors' care two weeks later. Nienhuis said he is expected to survive and will be charged with domestic violence and aggravated assault on officers.

Neither deputy was injured, and multiple agencies came in to investigate the officer-involved shooting.