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| Roy Middleton at the hospital |
(Scroll down for video) A man was shot by police on his own property after police thought he broke into his mother’s car.
It was about 2:45 am on Saturday when the man went outside to his mother’s car to get a cigarette.
Roy Middleton, 60, was in his own driveway in Warrington, Florida, when a neighbor saw him searching his mother's car and called police.
Officers of the Escambia County Sheriff’s department came to the scene where they witnessed Middleton leaning into the car. The officers ordered him to get away from the car and put his hands where they can see them.
Middleton said that at first he thought it was a neighbor joking with him, until he turned his head and saw the deputies.
Middleton gradually walked away from the vehicle with his hands in the air, but claims that the police opened fire as soon as he turned around.
"It was like a firing squad, bullets were flying everywhere," Middleton said.
The deputies, Jeremiah Meeks and Matthew White, were placed on paid administrative leave while the Florida Police Department is investigating the shooting.
Middleton was shot in the leg. He is grateful that they did not shoot him in his head or chest. "My mother's car is full of bullet holes, we had to get a rental," Middleton said.
A teenager, who witnessed the incident, said Middleton never provoked the deputies. "He was not aggressive or anything," he said.
Middleton does not understand why he was shot. "Even if they thought the car was stolen, all they had to do was run the license plate and they would have seen that the car belonged there," Middleton said.
The man is in the hospital recovering from the gunshot wound.