Indian River deputy fatally shoots suspect who tried to stab him with a knife in a disturbance call

New surveillance and body camera video shows what led up to an Indian River County Sheriff’s deputy shooting and killing a man at a Vero Beach gas station Sunday night.

Sheriff Eric Flowers called the deputy’s actions “heroic.”

The sheriff said the deputy was just wrapping up a call about an intoxicated woman at a McDonald’s near the RaceTrac on County Road 512 around 10:45 p.m. when he heard a disturbance, went to check it out, and ended up having to defend himself.

Surveillance and body camera video showed the moment the deputy shot and killed the man, who investigators identified as 42-year-old Jeffrey Lee Miller of Palm Bay.

“As soon as he walks up there, he has no clue what's going on here and all of a sudden, this guy is attacking him with a knife. Our deputy makes distance, he's drawing his firearm. The guy is chasing after him with a knife. That's when he fires the shots. The man goes down,” Flowers said.

Flowers identified the man as 42-year-old Jeffrey Lee Miller of Palm Bay.

He said Miller had a long criminal history, including robbery, child abuse, and making terroristic threats, and an active warrant out of Pennsylvania for a parole violation.

He also believed he was a gang member based on the tattoo on his chest, and traveled to Vero Beach with his wife Sunday night for an unknown reason.

“On the way down, his wife, he had told his wife that he wanted to take out a Palm Bay cop on the ride down. He had said he had previously stabbed the air mattress that they were staying on with the knife that he had, he had been stabbing things, and he was trying to open the door and get out on 95 on the ride down. So, he was seriously suffering from some major issues,” Flowers said.

Flowers said Miller had been chasing two men around the RaceTrac parking lot, which is the disturbance the deputy heard and was checking out before the shooting.

“Our deputy is a hero today. Because he did the right thing. He had no idea that those other guys, that all this was going on out there, that this guy was having these issues. He protected himself, and he potentially protected the lives of others,” Flowers said.

The deputy who shot Miller is 44 years old and was hired in January of this year, but he has six and half years of total law enforcement experience.

He was not hurt during the incident.