LCSO deputy arrested following standoff at Buckingham home

FORT MYERS, Fla.- A Lee County deputy has been arrested following a standoff at his home on Cemetery Road in the Buckingham area early Wednesday morning, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday.

Authorities swarmed Deputy Mark Young’s home after neighbors say they heard gunshots coming from inside. Young discharged his weapon about 12 times in the early morning hours, Sheriff Mike Scott said during a press conference on Friday.

According to Young’s arrest report, he had close to 30 beers the night of the standoff and got into an argument with his family before discharging his weapon.

The report also states Young had a loaded, long barrel gun and a handgun inside his home. Young fired several rounds and, according to the report, said things like “look at them run like cockroaches,” referring to deputies who were taking cover.

The standoff lasted close to five hours and Young was finally taken into custody after he was subdued with a riot gun, officials said. Sheriff Scott believes Young’s wife was inside the home during that time. She was not seriously injured and neither was Young, authorities said.

Scott adds Young was in the Marine Corps and was hired by the sheriff’s office in 1998. In December, Young was relieved of duty after a few years of declining performance and concerns that he was unfit for the job, officials said.

“This was a very, very good soldier, and a good Marine, and a very, very good deputy for some time but something went wrong,” Scott said. “People change. People have different afflictions and addictions and otherwise and issues and a combination of all the above or whatever led to his demise here, so he’s lucky to be alive. I’m lucky that none of our people were hurt and it could’ve been worse.”

Young was arrested on felony charges of domestic violence, discharging a firearm while intoxicated and two counts of aggravated assault against two deputies, authorities said.