Shooting and standoff ends deadly for Sanford man

SANFORD, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) - Police say an estranged husband shoots his wife, and barricades himself inside the home before ending up dead. It happened a little before 7 p.m. Saturday night in the 5 thousand block of Fawn Lake in the gated community of the Lake Forest subdivision.

Seminole County Sheriff deputies surrounded the house for hours trying to get 59-year old Gary Adams to surrender. The standoff, was so severe, residents and guest of the subdivision were on lockdown. No one was alowd in or out.

Alan Carpenter and his wife Rebecca are just one of many families affected by the 4th of July standoff. He and his wife couldn't get through the gates when they got home from church.
"Being cop citizen on patrol I'm somewhat familiar with the protocol we knew something was big had no idea that it was going on here," Carpenter said.

Helicopters hovered above, and tons of police officers, sheriff's deputies and S.W.A.T teams covered the area. Seminole county sheriffs spokesperson Cpt. Dennis Lemma says they received an emergency call to 5408 Fawn Lake Court from inside the community.

He says the woman's husband, Gary Adams, whom she's separated from was trying to force his way inside the home. "She told deputies at that time she had an injunction for protection that has not been served against him but had it in hand for the deputy who was going to respond to the scene," Lemma said.

Police tell us with in minutes, a deputy arrived on the scene, and spotted Adams leaving the subdivision. Lemma says the deputy tried to stop Adams, but he went back to the house.

"As Mr. Adams pulled into the driveway of the residence located at 5403 one shot was fired believed to be toward deputy sheriff at the time, deputy sheriff took cover behind a marked patrol vehicle returned one shot then returned a second shot.   A short time later a gun shot was then heard from the deputies location of cover and it was discovered he'd shot his wife at least one time," Lemma said.

She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Their fifteen year old child and a friend were able to flee from the house to safety, while Gary Adams, barricaded himself inside.

Cpt. Lemma tells FOX 35 after hours of standoff with Adams, they made the decision to go in and that's when they found Gary Adams dead in the garage. At this time, they're still investigating how he died, but we can tell you that Cpt. Lemma said no one from the sheriff's department or S.W.A.T fired their gun.

Shay Harris assisted with the writing of this story.