SEMINOLE, Fla. – A Florida woman escaped a nightmare domestic violence encounter after suffering 11 gunshot wounds, as she managed to reach a neighbor’s house to summon help. The person believed to be responsible for the shooting was later found dead inside the residence, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
At approximately 1:00 a.m. on Sunday, deputies responded to a 911 call from a neighbor regarding the shooting at a home on North Street in unincorporated Seminole, PCSO said.
Chief Deputy Paul Halle said the victim was shot twice in the head, and multiple times in the torso and thigh area. She was rushed to a hospital and is miraculously expected to survive. Her identity is not being released to the public, authorities said.
“It’s amazing, you think about someone who’s been shot that many times and is still able to walk out of her house, walk across the street to a neighbor, and tell them what happened,” Halle noted, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay.
The shooting transpired about 1 a.m. Sunday inside a home on North Street in unincorporated Seminole. (Screenshot FOX13 Tampa Bay)
The gunman was later identified as 65-year-old Wayne Lovell Dew. Deputies learned that he remained inside the home, and had access to rifles and pistols within the house, Halle confirmed.
After nearly seven hours of a standoff situation, SWAT used specialized equipment and tactics to enter the home and found the man had sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Dew was pronounced dead at the scene, FOX News reported.
During the incident, deputies closed Park Blvd and staged a command center in the Oakhurst United Methodist Church parking lot. As a result, Pastor Nathan Carlson canceled regular Sunday worship services.
“I’m really glad we had the space near where this was happening to stage the sheriff’s office. I’m glad we could work with them,” Carlson said. “It just goes to show that this can happen anywhere – we’re not immune to it. This is a nice neighborhood, it’s a pretty peaceful neighborhood, but this happens anywhere.”
Nearby resident Kayla McClure told FOX13 the incident was “scary.”
“It’s stuff you see on TV you don’t really think it’s going to be in your backyard,” she said.
Halle said Dew had a previous misdemeanor theft charge as well as a felony domestic violence incident in which he strangled the victim in 2016. However, no further details were immediately provided.
