BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — An intense dash cam video shows the moment a man opened fire on Brevard County Sheriff’s Office deputies during a traffic stop on Aug. 30.


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After the shootout, Paris Wilder was shot dead and one of the deputies wounded.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey says his deputies were ambushed and in the fight for their lives after the traffic stop turned from calm to chaos in seconds. The incident started just after 1 p.m. in the area of U.S. 192 and Interstate 95 when a vehicle was pulled over.

The dash cam video is from Deputy Brian Potters' patrol car of the scene. He was assisting Deputy Tyler Thoman with the stop of a car that had three adults and a 2-month-old baby.

Two of the people got out of the car and as Potters calmly spoke to the 38-year-old Wilder, who was in the backseat with the child, Wilder pulled a rifle and began firing.

Potters was struck in the leg and his partner ducked for cover.

The sheriff said the Cocoa man’s gun was hit by a bullet and jammed, which is when he began to beat Potters with the barrel.

Thoman came around the car and fired several shots, killing Wilder.

“I think his attitude was, ‘I'm not going back to jail, and anybody standing in my way. I'm going to take out.. He picked the wrong time and the wrong deputies and county to do that with,” said Ivey.

Sixty one rounds were fired in under a minute.

Wilder is a career criminal who was out on bond on drug trafficking charges.

The two other people in the car cooperated with deputies and were not charged.

Potters is expected to make a full recovery.