CLERMONT, Fla. – A woman was killed in a shooting on Wednesday evening in Clermont, and police said responding officers were “met with gunfire” from the gunman, according to a news release.
Clermont police said they responded to the Cottonwood Apartments, located in the area of 1700 Oakley Seaver Drive, around 3:30 p.m. regarding a call from a witness who stated they saw a woman screaming and running away from a man.
According to the release, officers initially could not find a victim, but later saw what appeared to be blood near an apartment door.
Officers at the scene began investigating and performed a well-being check at the apartment, finding a woman who appeared to be suffering from a gunshot wound.
Police said as they began to assess the scene and the victim, they were met with gunfire.
“We believe this to be an ambush,” Police Chief Charles Broadway later said. “(Officers) returned fire and did a tactical reset.”
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According to the release, the gunman went back into the apartment once police returned fire. Officers then retreated to a safe position and evacuated nearby apartments.
After officers tried to make contact with the gunman, a SWAT team was finally able to get into the apartment he’d holed up in, where they found him dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
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“We do not believe there are any additional victims at this time. We believe that this was an incident isolated to this apartment,” police said in their release.
In a news briefing afterward, Draper said that investigators believe the suspect and slain woman had been in a romantic relationship.
“We have indication from some of the neighbors that they’re coinhabitants,” he stated.
According to Draper, the gunman initially appeared to be “in his late 20s,” and officers were able to recover a handgun from the scene.
On Thursday afternoon, police finally identified the woman as Sarah Dale and the gunman as 28-year-old Christian Steeler Filson. They had recently moved to the apartment complex from Nashville, Tennessee.
“Filson was arrested for aggravated battery and reckless endangerment by discharging a firearm in a 2017 Tennessee incident,” a release from the police department reads. “He has no known criminal involvement in Florida.”
Once police had announced that there was no longer a threat on Wednesday evening, residents of Cottonwood Apartments began to return home. Several of them had anxiously waited for updates while standing in a parking lot across the street.
One such resident was Michael Lyons, who told News 6 that his wife and young children had been sheltering in place in their apartment for hours.
“I came here booking from work,” he said. “I was told I couldn’t get in — that there was an active shooter situation going on.”
Lyons showed News 6 the automated texts he received from his property management, alerting him that residents who had not been evacuated by police should shelter in place.
“Obviously, (I was) a bit nervous,” he added. “I have faith in my wife to protect our family, as well. However, it doesn’t change the situation that this is happening literally in my backyard.”
No additional details have been provided at this time.
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UPDATE: The scene is now safe and residents may return home. Thank you for your patience. Stay tuned for an update which...
Posted by Clermont Police Department (FL) on Wednesday, February 5, 2025