Home invaders “should expect to be shot,” a Florida sheriff has said, after a homeowner opened fire on two suspected intruders on Thursday night, one of whom later died.

“The bottom line is, this is the state of Florida,” Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells told reporters during a press conference on Friday. “You want to break into someone’s home, you should expect to be shot.”

Why It Matters

In 2005, Florida passed the “Stand Your Ground” law, which removed the duty to retreat from an intruder when acting in purported self-defense in the home if the home-dweller reasonably believed that they were in danger.

The Stand Your Ground law is widely associated with the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who claimed he was acting in self-defense, according to ProPublica. He was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, but was acquitted by a jury.

What To Know

Sheriff Wells said on Friday that local authorities received a call about shots being fired at roughly 9 p.m. on Thursday night in the Lakewood Ranch area, south of Tampa.

The homeowner, who has not been named, told deputies on the scene that two masked men had attempted to break into the property, and that he had shot one of the intruders, Wells said. The injured intruder was still in the property when authorities arrived, while the other had fled the scene, the sheriff said.

The homeowner was alerted by cameras outside the house, and told his wife to find a safe space while grabbing his firearm, Wells said.

The homeowner fired at least three shots at the suspect, while the other suspect climbed halfway through a window before retreating, the sheriff said. The latter was later found four blocks from the scene, Wells said.

The suspect who was shot later died at 7 a.m. on Friday morning after being admitted to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, authorities said.

In a later written statement, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said the surviving suspect had been identified as 39-year-old Michel Soto-Mella, who had arrived in the U.S. from Chile.

Wells said during the press conference, before authorities named Soto-Mella, that the surviving suspect arrived in California from Chile “a few months ago” and outstayed a 90-day visa.

The surviving suspect was “somewhat cooperative,” Wells said, but added he was “not telling us everything.”

Soto-Mella has been charged with armed burglary, with additional charges pending, the sheriff’s office said.

Wells said authorities had no information on why the house was targeted, nor the motive behind the home invasion.

The deceased suspect was named as 27-year-old Jorge Nestevan Flores-Toledo, also known by the name Anibal Miller-Valencia.

Flores-Toledo, from Mexico, was born in 2001, the sheriff’s office said.

He had been arrested in Oak Brook, Illinois, back in 2023, and had served four months in jail for residential burglary, authorities said. Flores-Toledo was released last month, the sheriff’s office said, adding there was an active warrant out for parole violation and Flores-Toledo was considered armed and dangerous.

What Happens Next

The sheriff’s office said detectives believed “there may be other individuals involved in this crime.”

As investigations continue, anyone with information related to the case is asked to contact the sheriff’s office.

The crash happened at 10:45 a.m. in crowded downtown Delray Beach, multiple news outlets reported. The Brightline train was stopped on the tracks, its front destroyed, about a block away from the Delray Beach Fire Rescue truck, its ladder ripped off and strewn in the grass several yards away, The Sun-Sentinel reported.

The Delray Beach Fire Rescue said in a social media post that three Delray Beach firefighters were in stable condition at a hospital. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue took 12 people from the train to the hospital with minor injuries.

Emmanuel Amaral rushed to the scene on his golf cart after hearing a loud crash and screeching train brakes from where he was having breakfast a couple of blocks away. He saw firefighters climbing out of the window of their damaged truck and pulling injured colleagues away from the tracks. One of their helmets came to rest several hundred feet away from the crash.

“The front of that train is completely smashed, and there was even some of the parts to the fire truck stuck in the front of the train, but it split the car right in half. It split the fire truck right in half, and the debris was everywhere,” Amaral said.

Brightline officials did not immediately comment on the crash.

A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said it was still gathering information about the crash and had not decided yet whether it will investigate.

The NTSB is already investigating two crashes involving Brightline’s high-speed trains that killed three people early this year at the same crossing along the railroad’s route between Miami and Orlando.

More than 100 people have died after being hit by trains since Brightline began operations in July 2017 — giving the railroad the worst death rate in the nation. But most of those deaths have been either suicides, pedestrians who tried to run across the tracks ahead of a train or drivers who went around crossing gates instead of waiting for a train to pass. Brightline has not been found to be at fault in those previous deaths.

Railroad safety has been a concern since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, spilling toxic chemicals that caught fire. Regulators urged the industry to improve safety and members of Congress proposed a package of reforms, but railroads have not made many major changes to their operations and the bill has stalled.

Earlier this month the two operators of a Union Pacific train were killed after it collided with a semitrailer truck that was blocking a crossing in the small West Texas town of Pecos. Three other people were injured, and the local Chamber of Commerce building was damaged.

Associated Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, Chevel Johnson in New Orleans and Julie Walker in New York contributed.

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