Florida deputies fatally shoot armed psychiatric patient

TAMARAC, Fla. – Deputies fatally shot a psychiatric patient who they say was threatening to harm people with a sharp piece of glass at a South Florida behavioural health centre.

News outlets report the shooting happened late Saturday at the University Hospital centre in Tamarac, which is near Fort Lauderdale.

Broward Sheriff’s spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright says a deputy shot 30-year-old Jarvis Randall with a bean bag, which failed to subdue him. When Randall then charged at the deputies, three of them opened fire. Randall was taken by sheriff’s helicopter to Broward General Hospital where he died.

Coleman-Wright says the behaviouralcentre’s staff told deputies Randall was threatening to harm others and described him as violent.

Randall was serving a five-year mental health probation for burglary charges.