18-year-old shot dead by deputies responding to welfare check
An 18-year-old teen who authorities say was armed with a kitchen knife was fatally shot by officers performing a welfare check in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday.
Officers responded to a request for a welfare check from the teen's mother who told dispatchers she suspected her son had taken something and was acting strange, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a press conference late Wednesday.
Deputies were on the scene for roughly 90 seconds before shots were fired, Bradshaw said.
Two deputies arrived on the scene, hearing "hollering and screaming," Bradshaw said. Deputies entered the house where they found a fight between a father and a son, who was holding a butcher knife, Bradshaw said.
The sheriff's office would not name the teen.
The two were fighting over a knife the teen was holding, which appeared to be a 5-inch butcher's knife, Bradshaw said.
The fight, which was "very violent," continued and the mother tried to intervene as a deputy deployed a stun gun on the teen, Bradshaw said.
Deputies repeatedly ordered the teen to drop the knife but he refused to comply and continued fighting his father, Bradshaw said.
The son then was able to get his father on his back, at which point the other deputy fired three shots and "disabled" the teen, Bradshaw said.
The stun gun deployed by a deputy before the shooting was "ineffective," Bradshaw said.
The teen was struck in the torso and was transported to a local hospital where he later died, according to the sheriff's office. The teen's father also has a superficial wound on his hands and has been taken to a hospital, Bradshaw said.
The teen has a history of mental illness in 2025 but no other interactions with the sheriff's office, Bradshaw said.
"The deputies probably saved the dad's life because this was a very violent struggle over this knife and they did what they had to do. They used all the measures ahead of time to try to resolve it in another fashion, it just wasn't going to work," Bradshaw said at a press conference late Wednesday.
The officers are on administrative leave "until the incident gets resolved," Bradshaw said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office are reviewing the incident and will determine if the deputies acted properly, Bradshaw said.
