Witness video showing Volusia County deputies shooting and killing a robbery suspect over the weekend sheds new light on the incident.

  • Witness captured the exchange between a robbery suspect and Volusia County deputies
  • Deputies shot Donald Brown over the weekend during a traffic stop
  • Witness says the video shows Brown would not put down his knife

The witness was stopped right behind the deputies at a traffic stop and captured the entire exchange on his cell phone from behind his windshield. He said he heard the deputies warn the suspect to put down his knife multiple times, but he wouldn’t cooperate.

On Sunday afternoon in broad daylight, Volusia County deputies stopped a man accused of an armed robbery. Donald Brown, 32, got out of the car as the driver was taken into custody. But Brown showed no sign of cooperating.

“They were giving him orders, but he wasn’t obeying anything they told him to do,” witness Scotty Carter said.

Carter witnessed the entire exchange from his car and captured it on video..

“Being belligerent - cussing at them, things like that,” Carter said. “And several times he said, ‘shoot me, shoot me.’”

Investigators said Brown was armed with a hunting knife and swinging his right arm at deputies in a manner consistent with wielding a deadly weapon. Moments later, the deputies opened fire.

On the video we counted around 30 shots. We asked a former law enforcement officer turned private investigator, if that was necessary.

“Not seeing how the guy’s movement was after the shots were fired is kind of hard to see and answer that,” former Orange County Sheriff’s investigator James Copenhaven said. “You want to shoot until it’s not a threat.”

Copenhaven has 30 years of law enforcement experience. After viewing the witness video, he said the deputies responded appropriately.

“One hundred percent justified,” Copenhaven said. “Is it excessive? No I don’t think it is.”

But all of that is now under investigation.

“He had an opportunity to do what they said,” Carter said.

Brown was declared dead at the scene.

FDLE is investigating the shooting. The deputies involved have been placed on administrative leave which is standard protocol.

The robbery is being investigated by the Orange City Police Department.