VENUS, Fla. — Highlands County Sheriff's Office deputies say a man who barricaded inside a home with his two children has died after an hours-long standoff that began Monday night.
The sheriff's office said the children – ages 3 and 4 – were released a few hours before the barricade ended and the man died. The children are safe.
After the children were out of the home, deputies put a liquid-based canister into the home located on Oliver Road in Venus as a way to get Sonny Holland, 43, outside. However, authorities say they heard a gunshot from inside the home and it began to smoke.
The house eventually started to burn and Holland came out of the door when he shot at the Polk County SWAT team members, the sheriff's office said in an update.
The SWAT team reportedly returned fire, leading Holland to go back inside the burning home, which at the time was fully on fire.
Due to the flames, first responders could not enter the home to rescue Holland, the sheriff's office says.
As a precaution, deputies say the children were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and have been placed in protective custody.
“I want to commend our deputies, SWAT Team and Crisis Negotiators for giving their all for 12 hours on this incident," Sheriff Paul Blackman said in a statement. "I also want to thank Sheriff Grady Judd and the Polk County Sheriff's Office for allowing us to utilize their resources and give our deputies a much-needed break.
"Our prayers are with the children and the rest of the family whose lives were forever changed today."
Officials say an autopsy will be conducted to determine Holland's exact cause of death. The incident will be further investigated by the 10th Judicial Circuit's Officer Involved Deadly Incident Task Force.