A gunman was shot and killed Thursday after an hours-long standoff that saw him firing more than 200 rounds at neighboring buildings and at deputies.
Joseph DiFusco was brought down by a sniper after he terrorized the Ormond-on-the Sea condominium and the surrounding area for several hours Thursday morning.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said that deputies responded to the suspect’s unit in the Kingston Shores Condominium three times in the past four days but DiFusco was not arrested.
At around 6 a.m. Thursday, DiFusco started firing shots at nearby properties. He barricaded himself and continued firing from his unit when deputies arrived.
“Probably he fired close to 200-plus rounds. I’m sure when you’ll see the crime scene, some of the apartments are littered, the façade is just shot up. There’s rounds in people’s homes,” Chitwood said.
“He shot at our negotiators, at the speaker on the truck. He shot at the SWAT truck when it pulled up. He retreated into a back bedroom. We were able to send in tear gas and kind of corner him, but it was obvious that he wasn’t coming out. He was armed with at least a shotgun, a handgun, and a Tommy gun.”
DiFusco only responded with gunfire to deputies’ attempts to make him surrender. Shortly after noon, police announced that he was dead.
The sheriff’s office said that no one was injured in the incident.
