UPDATE: Man deemed threat shot by OPD officers

[Photo courtesy Ocala Police Department]

UPDATE: An unidentified 23-year-old man was shot Sunday afternoon by law enforcement and was hospitalized after he fled before being admitted to a local mental health facility and became a threat to the public, according to an Ocala Police Department spokesman.

OPD Public Information Officer Jeffrey Walczak stated in a Facebook post that the man was being transported by family members to The Vines Hospital and “prior to being admitted and before officers arrived, the subject fled the area acting erratic.”

OPD was contacted at approximately 12:21 p.m. and the man was located around 12:28 p.m., near the 5500 block of Southwest 27th Avenue, the post indicated.

“When contact was made, the subject was an immediate threat and officers used deadly force and shot the subject. The man was struck by gunfire and taken to HCA hospital. No officers were harmed during the incident,” the post stated.

Specific details about the threat or location of the injured man at the time he was shot were not immediately available, Walczak stated by phone.

The man was taken to HCA Florida Ocala Hospital.

As per standard procedure, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is responding and will assist in the investigation, the post stated.

Further details about the incident will be released when available, the OPD Facebook post indicated.

UPDATED INFORMATION: In a 7:44 p.m. text update, Walczak wrote that the injured man was “armed with pepper spray and a knife when contact was made by the officers.”

Walczak stated the injured man was “out of surgery and has additional pending medical procedures” and stated that his condition was “serious.”

The investigation is ongoing, he wrote.