An Orlando man is dead after holding his wife in a headlock Sunday and threatening to kill her with a tool in front of an Orange County deputy sheriff, authorities said.
The fatal encounter occurred at 6:30 p.m. when the deputy arrived at the couple's home at the Fairview Mobile Court at 4462 Edgewater Dr., according to the Sheriff's Office.
Authorities had just received a phone call from the wife and could only hear two people arguing on the line, said Deputy Ginette Rodriguez, a Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.
After the deputy arrived, Eric Wayne Dunphy, 54, spotted him from the doorway and started screaming that he was going to kill his wife, Rodriguez said.
Dunphy then rushed back into the home and the deputy followed. Once inside, Dunphy put his wife in a headlock, held a tool to the back of her head and threatened to kill her, investigators said.
"It was a lethal situation, and that's when he [the deputy] fired his handgun," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez would not name the deputy or say how many times he fired his weapon. The incident is under investigation. The deputy was unharmed.
Authorities also did not say what kind of tool Dunphy was holding.
The woman's name was not released. She was not hurt.
She had an injunction against her husband, but she was allowing him to live in the home, investigators said. Rodriguez said Dunphy had previous arrests and deputies had previously visited the residence for domestic-violence calls.
The deputy has been with the agency since 2008 and is being assigned to administrative duties while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates.
Copyright 2013 - Orlando Sentinel
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
