Kissimmee Police officers shot and wounded a man Thursday afternoon they say brandished a firearm at three officers, the department said.
It was later found that Matthew Thomas Koutouzis-Wagner, 20, was holding a BB gun that Kissimmee Police Chief Charles Broadway called a "realistic-looking rifle" to responding police.
About 1:30 p.m., officers responded to a 911 call about a man walking with a rifle in the 4300 block of West Vine Street, and encountered Koutouzis-Wagner holding the weapon behind a building in a plaza at Old Vineland Road/Bass Road.
Broadway said that officers issued multiple verbal commands for Wagner to drop the weapon. Instead, the suspect allegedly pointed it directly at them, prompting officers to open fire in self-defense. Wagner was struck and immediately received emergency medical aid from the officers at the scene before he was transported to a local hospital, where he remains in stable condition.
An early review of body camera footage confirmed that the officers repeatedly attempted to de-escalate the situation, said reports. Broadway emphasized that the BB gun Wagner wielded closely resembled a real rifle, making it indistinguishable in the heat of the moment.
"Those officers were forced to shoot the subject to defend themselves and others in the area," he said during a press briefing.
Koutouzis-Wagner had no prior arrest record in Osceola County, court records show.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office are conducting independent investigations into the shooting. The three officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of these investigations.
The officers’ body-worn camera footage will be released to the public once the preliminary review is complete, according to police.
