ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – An officer shot and killed a rifle-wielding man after responding to a home in Altamonte Springs on Tuesday, according to the police department.
In a release, police said they responded to the home around 5:34 p.m. after receiving a 911 call about an armed man walking house-to-house in the River Run neighborhood.
As officers approached the area, they made contact with neighborhood resident Eric Seckington, 65, who was brandishing a rifle, the release shows.
Police told Seckington to put the firearm down, but he ignored the orders, according to investigators.
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An officer with the Altamonte Springs Police Department then fired at Seckington, fatally wounding him, the release reads.
“He made a move as to kind of place the rifle on the fence, and at that point, that’s when the officer made the decision to shoot him,” police said.
Investigators said the police department has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to respond.
Meanwhile, the officer involved in the shooting was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, police explained.
News 6 obtained audio from the 911 call before the shooting, which involved a neighbor calling police about Seckington wandering through the neighborhood.
“He’s walking from house to house with a rifle in his hand...” the neighbor says. “He hasn’t encountered anybody. Nobody has encountered him on the street yet. We’ve just been watching him go — he went to the house on one side of him, he went to the house on the other side of him. Now, he’s walking across the street to our house, carrying this rifle.”
The caller adds that Seckington had “mental issues” and that police had been to Seckington’s house several times within the past six months.
“The police actually came about a week or so ago and put him in a car and took him somewhere,” she says. “But he is back.”
During a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, police confirmed that Seckington had a mental illness and that his “erratic behavior” had been an ongoing issue in the neighborhood.
“We have had multiple calls where we have talked to him about that, provided services,” police said. “We actually have a community engagement officer who met with Mr. Seckington just two weeks prior, and the Aspire mobile response unit came out, assessed him, and he was taken to the hospital. However, he was released shortly after that visit.”
According to investigators, an injunction for stalking and trespassing had been filed against Seckington, which was approved around 10 minutes before police received the 911 call.
“Over the past year, there have been approximately 40 calls for service that included multiple attempts to connect him with mental health resources or to peaceably resolve conflicts he was having with others,” detectives said.
Despite that, police explained that they “were never aware” that Seckington possessed any firearms before Tuesday.
However, they said that there was a case in 2004 in which Seckington was arrested after holding a knife to someone’s neck.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact police at (407) 339-2441. Anonymous tips can be made to Crimeline at (800) 423-TIPS.
No additional information has been provided at this time.
[LISTEN TO THE FULL 911 CALL IN THE AUDIO PLAYER BELOW]
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