SHALIMAR — Authorities say a Florida Panhandle sheriff’s deputy and a suspect are dead following a shooting outside a lawyer’s office and a standoff at a nearby hotel.

Okaloosa Sheriff Larry Ashley said during a news conference Tuesday that Deputy Bill Myers and the suspect, 33-year-old Joel Dixon Smith, had died.

Myers met Smith at a Shalimar law office earlier in the day. Officials say Smith was supposed to surrender his firearms following a domestic violence injunction, but Smith instead shot Myers and fled to a hotel where he had been staying.

The Sheriff’s Office says Smith was fatally wounded while exchanging gunfire with deputies during the standoff.

Associated Press