ORLANDO, Fla. _ An Orange County sheriff's deputy was shot in Holden Heights on Tuesday while trying to serve a warrant on a convicted felon.
Sgt. Richard Stelter, 45, was shot multiple times, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at a news conference at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
"He is able to communicate; he's in relatively good spirits," Demings said.
The 20-year-old suspect is dead, he added.
The suspect, who is not being identified until next of kin is notified, was tried and convicted of attempted murder when he was 17, Demings said. He was recently released from prison.
"Today, those violent tendencies led to his death," Demings said.
Stelter was one of four deputies in an investigative surveillance squad who were trying to serve a warrant on the suspect for violation of probation and several robberies of elderly women who were injured.
"The suspect began firing upon deputies first," Demings said. The deputies returned fire.
A young woman was in the car with the suspect at Park Central apartments, near the corner of John Young Parkway and Americana Boulevard, when the shooting started. She may have received a minor wound, Demings said.
"In the shooting today, we are not looking for additional suspects," Demings said.
A woman who said she was a friend of the suspect's family was standing outside the apartment complex, crying. She was trying to find a way into the complex to help her friends. She said she did not want to be identified.
About 2:15 p.m., a medical examiner's van pulled into the complex.
The warrant on the suspect was for a series of three robberies _ two in Orange County and one in Orlando _ during which three elderly women were injured when four suspects snatched their purses.
One of the victims needed a shoulder replacement, and another required shoulder surgery. The attacks happened at the Mall at Millenia, Florida Mall and on Apopka Vineland Road.
Stelter's wife is with him at the hospital. They have three children, ages 25, 20 and 14.
Orange County deputies gathered outside the emergency room entrance at ORMC on Tuesday as employees put up large blue tarps to conceal people coming in and out of the hospital. They stood by, keeping watch and calmly talking to one another.
The Orlando Police Department tweeted that it is "standing with our brothers and sisters" at the Sheriff's Office and "praying for the deputy's speedy recovery."
And the Winter Park Police Department tweeted: "Thoughts & prayers are with the injured @OrangeCoSheriff Deputy & the entire OSCO fam. Speedy recovery. #ThinBlueLine #WeStandTogether."
This shooting comes just days after two Casselberry Police Department officers were injured in a shooting following a domestic violence call.
In that shooting, the officers responded to a home on Crestview Drive about 4 a.m. Saturday hoping to talk with 65-year-old James Lee Parran, but he instead picked up a shotgun and fired, police said.
Two officers were struck by the shotgun pellets and then fired back at Parran. He was later found dead inside the doorway of his home.
Police haven't said if Parran was killed by police or by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The officers received minor injuries, police said.
And last month, Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton was fatally shot at a Wal-Mart. After a days-long manhunt, Markeith Loyd was arrested and charged in her death.
