Neighbors react to deputy-involved shooting of man with machete

New body camera footage shows the moment Charlotte County deputies opened fire on a man armed with a machete.

The incident occurred one week ago, involving 36-year-old Shawn Ravert, who charged at deputies with a two-foot-long hunting knife.

The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office revealed that Ravert was struggling with a drug relapse, which led to his uncharacteristic behavior.

Neighbors expressed their sorrow over his death, with some unable to hold back tears.

In the video, deputies can be heard instructing Ravert more than ten times to drop the weapon. Despite their warnings, Ravert continued to approach, prompting deputies to fire 17 shots, resulting in his death.

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Kristina Dorsett, a neighbor and friend, said the video does not reflect who Ravert was.

“That would be like the last thing I would have thought. I would have never expected him to be aggressive,” said Dorsett.

Another friend, Sean Herzog, shared that he had known Ravert for about a year and was aware of his past struggles.

“We’d work out together. He’d text me, ‘Merry Christmas’, Christmas morning. He was just always in the neighborhood, happy as can be walking a dog, just saying hi to everybody,” said Herzog. “Yeah, he was upfront with me when I first met him. he told me, you know, he was a former drug addict. I found out, because I offered him a beer, and he won’t even take that.”

In the week leading up to the incident, neighbors reported unusual behavior from Ravert.

One neighbor mentioned he broke into her lanai, leaving a baseball bat and hoodie in her yard. Another said he was hiding in bushes, acting as if police were present when they were not.

Both Herzog and Dorsett expressed regret that no one checked on Ravert sooner, hoping intervention might have prevented the escalation.