WESH
ORLANDO — Two women are dead and their suspected killer is hospitalized after an Orlando Police Department SWAT team surrounded a home on Bradleys Landing Street in the Lake Nona area.
Officers rushed to the home after neighbors heard gunshots there and called 911 late Sunday night.
“We were all hanging out on my back porch and we heard like five shots — really loud bangs,” neighbor Tyler Israel said.
OPD says the man at the center of the standoff, identified as 46-year-old Elmer Banner, killed two women, Debra Banner, 46, and Carol Minich, 70.
Neighbors said SWAT set up a command center and tried to negotiate with the man inside the home for more than an hour before officers moved in.
However, Banner then tried to leave the home from a back door, officers said.
Lake Nona crime scene
“I don’t know if he came out with a weapon, but he came out of the house and he was confronted by one of our officers,” Sgt. Vince Ogburn said. “He was not obeying commands and he was subsequently shot twice by our officer.”
Banner, was taken to the Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he is in stable condition.
Officers are calling the case one of deadly domestic violence.
Neighbors are shocked.
“We haven’t had anything happen like this before,” Israel said.
Elmer faces homicide charges, according to investigators.
Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will conduct a separate investigation, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.
Reprinted with permission from WESH