Two injured in shooting in New Hope, suspect dead

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – One man is dead following a 9-hour standoff with Washington and Bay County Sheriff’s deputies.

Authorities said it began when the man shot at a vehicle carrying his girlfriend and some children.

Around 11:30 Tuesday night, Washington County dispatchers received a call in reference to a domestic violence incident on Shell Point Road in New Hope, west of Vernon.

A woman had called her mother to come pick up her and her kids.

Deputies say the woman was trying to leave her boyfriend, who has been identified as Hueland Todd Brown, and that Brown was preventing her from leaving.

The woman managed to escape, with some of her children, and get to the victim’s mother’s car. That’s when Brown opened fire on the vehicle.

“When they got out, got away from the gate, and got through the gate he basically opened fire on the vehicle that contained the living girlfriend, the girlfriend’s mother, and at this time right now, I don’t even know how many kids but several kids,” Washington County Sheriff Kevin Crews said.

The girlfriend’s mother was shot three times along with a two-year-old child. Neither was seriously wounded.

After the shooting, Brown then fled the scene.

“Mr. Brown then fled the area on foot and went to a nearby neighbor’s house who has been a long-time acquaintance of his, and then actually barricaded himself in the house,” Crews said.

That led to a nine-hour standoff between brown and both Washington and Bay County sheriff deputies. Both deployed SWAT teams.

“At about 5 in the morning, I got up because I kept hearing something that sounded like a drone going around my trailer and I was like, ‘what?’ You know, and I thought, ‘ok’, maybe they’re surveying. So I called the Washington County Police Department and I asked if they had any reports for surveillance in the area, and they said, ‘no, there is a suspect,” suspect neighbor Sherrie Bowman said.

Negotiators tried for hours to convince Brown to surrender.

“We’d hear on the intercom, the police officers coming over, ‘Come outside with your hands up, we want to talk to you, come outside.’ Then there would be silence for about 10 to 15 minutes and then you’d hear it again. This went on and on for like three or four hours,” Bowman said.

The stand-off ended around 9:30 Wednesday morning when Brown took his own life.

“It was a great team effort with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. I can’t thank Sheriff Ford enough for what they did for us. It’s a bad situation, it’s a sad situation, and by the grace of God we’re not dealing with any dead or seriously injured people right now,” Bowman added.

Washington County sheriff’s deputies are still investigating to find the reasons for this tragic incident.

Original Story below:

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – There is a law enforcement presence in New Hope after a suspect wanted in a late-night shooting barricaded himself inside a neighboring home off of Shell Point Road.

According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to a verbal dispute around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday which later resulted in shots being fired.

Officials have identified the suspect as 55-year-old Hueland Todd Brown.

In a news release, two people were injured in the shooting but deputies said they are both expected to make a full recovery.

The Bay County SWAT team in addition to local agencies responded to the area and spent over 9 hours trying to apprehend the suspect.

Washington County Sheriff Kevin Crews said the standoff ended shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday after attempts were unsuccessful Brown took his own life.

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