Over the past 13 years and despite numerous close calls involving armed individuals, Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies have built a remarkable record of avoiding fatal officer-involved shootings. The only such shooting since then–in 2020 in Daytona North–was not fatal. Even then, deputies successfully prevented the man from killing himself after the shooting.
On Monday, deputies added to that record of successful de-escalations.
Keith M., a 55-year-old resident of Clearview Court in Palm Coast who’d kept the 911 center and deputies busy for 72 hours with delusional calls to 911, encounters with deputies and a trip to the county jail, had again summoned deputies to his house, acted manically and belligerently, then rushed to grab what looked like a gun. Deputies knew he was not in his right mind. He could have been shot.
“I was unable to catch Keith as he made it to his front door,” Deputy Joshua Barrett Keith reported in an incident narrative. “Keith was provided multiple verbal commands to exit the residence, but he did not comply. Keith then went into a nearby desk drawer and retrieved what Deputies believed to be a black in color handgun. Deputy Barlotta and I drew our agency-issued firearms and provided a verbal command. Keith immediately dropped the firearm on the desk and fled into the rear of the residence.”
It has not been unusual, in other agencies, for officers to fire their guns in similar situations, before issuing verbal commands. With Keith, deputies turned to negotiating tactics, patience and gradual steps that enabled them to gain control and prepare Keith for a Baker Act.
Keith accused deputies of cutting off his phone line. He was upset that he could not contact his mother. He then said he wanted to kill himself, and jumped in the pool. At that point deputies put him in handcuffs, though he continued to resist.
The black pistol was found to be a Byrna SD pepper ball gun with four hard white pepper balls and a black magazine. It looked indistinguishable from a firearm.
“This is exactly why we invest so much time in training de-escalation and crisis response,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “Our deputies stayed patient, created time, used their rapport, and kept communicating until they could safely take him into custody. This situation could have quickly escalated to a deputy involved shooting but because of their training it did not. I’m very proud of our deputies for deescalating this incident and safely taking him into custody.”
Keith’s mother told authorities that to her knowledge, her son did not have any mental health conditions and does not use illegal drugs. Neighbors reported that he was known to have insomnia.
Keith had been calling 911 since Feb. 7, according to his previous arrest report. He’d claimed that an Amazon delivery employee possessed a lethal weapon, a claim deputies disproved. He yelled at 911 dispatchers, refused to provide relevant information and made strange threats such as: “If I fall down and have a heart attack and die, then we will die too.” A deputy who’d responded to Keith’s house found him to be acting erratically and to be extremely argumentative.
He continued to call 911 into the evening, through the night and the next morning, repeating the same pattern of foul language and incoherent claims. When deputies again responded to the house a little after 8 a.m. on Sunday, Keith acted aggressively, but was eventually placed in handcuffs. He claimed he and his mother were being held hostage. When he asked for medical attention for his mother, who was in the house, his mother declined it. He then began ignoring deputies’ commands to stay in place, then used force to resist the deputies, which led to a misdemeanor charge of resisting and the trip to the jail.
He was booked on the charge and released on $500 bond. Then started the next series of incidents, as Keith became upset that he had been arrested. When again faced with deputies, “Keith was very manic, going on tangents, how he would arrest FCSO Deputies, and calling the FBI Director on the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office,” a deputy reported. Deputies learned that he may not have slept for 80 hours. He was acting paranoid, fearing that deputies were going to kill him.
It was around then that he went for what looked like a gun.
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