Volusia County, FL, Sheriff Mike Chitwood said he has never felt luckier during his 32-year law enforcement career than he did Thursday afternoon.
He wasn’t going to have to tell a young girl that her father had been killed in the line of duty.
Sheriff Says FL Deputy Shot in Head by Suspect Escaped Death by "Millimeter"
“A millimeter lower and Sgt. Dane is dead,” Chitwood told the media a few hours after the shooting during a news conference less than 100 yards from where the face-off took place on State Road 44.
April 12, 2019
Sgt. Thomas Dane of the Volusia County (FL) Sheriff's Office was wearing this hat when he was shot with a .32 caliber handgun Thursday. The bullet punctured his K-9 baseball cap in two places and cut through his scalp. Sheriff Mike Chitwood says Dane escaped death by a millimeter. (Photo: Volusia County SO)
“A millimeter lower and Sgt. Dane is dead,” Chitwood told the media a few hours after the shooting during a news conference less than 100 yards from where the face-off took place on State Road 44.
Volusia County Sheriff’s Sgt. Thomas Dane, 54, had a round from a .32-caliber handgun graze his skull. The bullet punctured his K-9 baseball cap in two places and cut through his scalp, but Dane was not seriously injured, Chitwood told the Daytona Beach News-Journal .
The shooter, a carjacking suspect who led deputies on a pursuit from Deltona to the Volusia County Fairgrounds outside DeLand, died at the hospital from his bullet wounds, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He was identified late Thursday as 30-year-old Phillip Thomas Marsh of Lake Helen.