Man shot by Orange County deputies dies of his injuries

ORLANDO, Fla. — A man shot by Orange County deputies last week has died.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Antonio Chez Scippio, 33, died from his injuries at the hospital on Sunday.

The incident happened on Friday at his home on Merganser Drive. The sheriff’s office says they were called there at 5:15 p.m. over a suicidal person. Deputies say when they arrived, Scippio approached them holding a knife. Deputies say they told him serval times to drop the knife as they backed up, but he did not do so, at which point they shot him.

However, the man’s mother tells a different story. The mother, Gail Reed, told Channel 9 that she informed the deputies about her son’s condition before they entered her home, but still, things escalated. “I told the officers. I said, Do not shoot my son. You can use a taser; do not shoot my son,” she said. “Ma’am, get back. Get back, they said. They back out my front door, and they shot him.”

When announcing his death, the sheriff’s office said the following:

“While the Behavioral Response Unit has responded to more than 15,000 calls since its inception in December 2020, BRU deputy/clinician teams do not respond directly to calls where the subjects are armed. All of our calls – even the ones where someone is in mental health crisis – are answered initially by first responding deputies to ensure the scene is safe.
A great majority of the calls we get involving people in a mental health crisis do not involve weapons, and once first responding deputies determine there are no weapons and no danger to our clinicians, the deputy/clinician team can engage the person in mental crisis.
It’s important to keep in mind that in addition to our Behavioral Response Unit – which consists of six deputy/clinician teams - nearly 1,000 OCSO deputies have completed a 40-hour Crisis Intervention Training and are equipped with tools they need to interact with those in crisis.”
— Orange County Sheriff's Office

Additional details have not been released at this time.

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