3 Leon County Public Safety Employees Fired After Shooting

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Three employees were fired in the wake of the shooting death of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported Friday that employees at the city-county emergency dispatch agency were fired because they did not alert deputies and firefighters responding to a fire in a neighborhood just outside the city limits.

When deputies arrived at the fire, they were ambushed by 53-year-old Curtis Wade Holley. Authorities said he fatally shot Leon County Sheriff’s Deputy Christopher Smith and wounded another deputy before he was killed in a gun battle outside his home.

The Democrat reported that Holley had threatened to shoot any law enforcement that came to his home according to the dispatch agency’s review. But that warning was not passed on to those responding to the fire.