Chilling bodycam footage shows cops save child, 7, from knife-wielding brother

Deputy Antonio Gonzalez shot and killed a knife-wielding man holding his 7-year-old brother hostage in Brandon, Florida.

A Florida deputy shot and killed a knife-wielding man holding his little brother hostage at their home in Brandon. According to a news release from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a domestic violence call at the home on Sunday afternoon. The caller informed that armed suspect Mario Camacho was choking their 7-year-old brother.

Florida deputy saves a 7-year-old being choked at knifepoint by his brother(Representational Image)

Deputy saves child being held hostage by knife-wielding brother in Florida

When the deputies arrived at the scene, the 27-year-old had barricaded himself and his little brother inside a back bedroom. Upon hearing the child scream, they kicked down the door and found Camacho holding the child hostage at knifepoint, per the sheriff's office.

The deputies found that Camacho was wearing a motorcycle helmet and two tactical vests with ballistic plates. They repeatedly asked the suspect to drop the knife and let his little brother go, but he ignored the commands. After the suspect refused to comply, a deputy shot the suspect and rescued the child.

Camacho was brought to Brandon Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 2:45 pm, according to the release. Meanwhile, Antonio Gonzalez, the deputy who killed the suspect, was placed on administrative leave with pay pending the completion of a probe into the shooting.

Gonzalez has been with the HCSO for nearly six years, according to the release from the sheriff's office. The 25-year-old spent five years as a detention deputy and 11 months as a law enforcement deputy. Bodycam footage of the incident shows the chilling moment he saved the child from the suspect.

“The only shot he could take was the shot he had to take to stop that threat from harming that boy, and rescuing him and saving him,” Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer said during a press conference on Sunday, per Fox 13. “If our deputies did not take that action, there’s no doubt in my mind that that boy is not here tonight.”