HERNANDO COUNTY — Two Hernando County Sheriff’s Office deputies were shot early Thursday morning while serving a narcotics search warrant on a home, Sheriff Al Nienhuis said in a video statement on Facebook.
The suspect, Anthony Cusati, 29, is in custody. Nienhuis said Cusati shot through a door at the SWAT members as they approached the house in the 8000 block of Coral Street and Newton Road in the Berkeley Manor Boulevard in Spring Hill at about 5 a.m.
The deputies did not return fire.
Sgt. Scott Lewis, an 11-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office, was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the upper left leg. The shot to the chest hit the top of his body camera, and the deputy also had on body armor. The shot to the left leg was more serious and was causing a lot of pain but didn’t appear to have hit any major blood vessels, Nienhuis said.
“They got the bleeding stopped and it looks like he should be fine,” Nienhuis said.
Deputy Jonathan Alion, a K-9 deputy serving on the SWAT team, was shot in the forearm, but it was not deep and might just need some stitches.
Both men were taken to the hospital and are expected to recover.
Cusati has six felony charges, Nienhuis said, including battery on detention staff, marijuana charges, discharging a firearm from a vehicle, carrying a concealed weapon, burglary with an assault or battery, and aggravated stalking. Also, he had been arrested on homicide charges, the sheriff said, and the charges were dropped to improper display of a firearm.
The investigation into Cusati began a couple of months ago, and was for cocaine, Nienhuis said.
The case has been turned over to major case detectives, the sheriff said, for attempted murder on law enforcement officers, and are getting a warrant redrafted for that charge.