INDIALANTIC, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff’s deputy was shot multiple times when he responded to a confrontation between neighbors over the feeding of feral cats.

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey told a news conference early Wednesday that the deputy was being prepared for surgery but was alert. He says the deputy told him simply, “I won.”

Ivey says the deputy went to the neighborhood in response to an argument over cats. He asked one of the neighbors to return to his house while he talked to the other man, who appeared to be extremely agitated. The man went behind a vehicle and the deputy heard the sound of a rifle being charged. The man stepped around the vehicle, and the two exchanged gunfire. The man was killed.

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The sheriff hasn’t released their names.