ORMOND-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. — A man accused of shooting at law enforcement and into homes is dead after an hours-long standoff in Central Florida on Thanksgiving Day.
It happened at Ormond-by-the-Sea — a normally quiet seaside town in Volusia County.
Residents were shocked that something like this happened in the Kingston Shores condos.
"We leave our windows open at night and our doors open at night," Valiant said. "We've never seen anything like this."
He said the barrage of gunfire started Thursday morning.
"We just heard gunshots, lots and lots of gunshots, but we thought maybe it was fireworks at first," Valiant said.
Those gunshots woke up many residents at the condos, but others got up as deputies banged on their doors asking them to leave for their own safety.
Deputies said the gunman, identified as Joseph DiFusco, was a man staying at an Airbnb at the complex and began firing into homes and at deputies.
"I don't think it's anything you've really seen before," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said, "when you see the facades of these buildings and the windows that are shot out in that."
Chitwood said DiFusco, a veteran and convicted felon from Connecticut, was having a mental health crisis.
"His family tried to take an ex parte order out on him (Wednesday) because they were so scared of him," Chitwood said. "They were sleeping in their car and there was no negotiating with this guy."
Chitwood said every time negotiators tried to talk to him he would fire gunshots. After hours of back-and-forth, they finally decided to use lethal force.
DiFusco was killed by a sheriff's office sniper after they said he fired about 200 rounds at homes and deputies for "over several hours."
No one else was hurt in the incident.
"My objective was to make sure that every single deputy went home for Thanksgiving dinner today, and that every single resident of that complex got to have Thanksgiving dinner today," Chitwood said.
