J.D. Gallop, Chris Bonanno, and Tyler Vazquez

Florida Today

It was 2013 and Demarco Newman was lying on the floor of his cottage home, riddled with hollow-point bullets, quietly whispering to his son to take care of his mother, police recalled.

Now three years later, Palm Bay police say the 43-year-old, left partially paralyzed from the previous attack, was the one with the weapon when he shot and critically wounded his wife during a late Tuesday domestic dispute.

Newman, a would-be music producer, was then shot and killed by a Palm Bay Police officer as SWAT team members stormed the couple’s apartment on Lockheed Street during a daring rescue.

Newman also began to "taunt and challenge" the officers, Palm Bay Police Chief Mark Renkens said.

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The woman, identified as 36-year-old Amy Lee Jones, remains in critical condition at Holmes Regional Medical Center. Jones is suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds.

Police said the couple’s relationship had become increasingly strained in recent months.

Renkens identified Sgt. Thomas Ribnicky as the officer as having ultimately compromised the shooter. He is currently on paid administrative leave as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducts an investigation.

Renkens called Ribnicky "an absolute exceptional officer" and said he had "no discipline issues whatsoever" during his employment with the department, which began in 2001.

The domestic incident unfolded as police dispatchers received a call at 7:17 p.m. Tuesday from a woman who said her husband was slashing himself and threatening to kill her with a handgun, according to Lt. Mike Bandish, also with the Palm Bay Police Department.

“While we were responding, she said she was barricading herself in the bathroom, and we sent units right away,” Bandish said overnight.

Renkens added that Newman was ”threatening to shoot himself, shoot her and threatening to shoot it out with police."

Officers surrounded the darkened street and took up position around the cottage complex. Several neighbors in the adjacent units were evacuated. Police then deployed a sheriff’s department bomb squad robot to get into the home. It was then officers heard Jones’ cries that she had been shot.

Bandish said SWAT decided to go into the house at 10:45 p.m. to make the rescue, killing Newman in the process. Jones was taken by ambulance to Holmes.

Jane Dawson, a neighbor, said she knew the couple.

“He was a wonderful man. He was gentle,” said Dawson, who has seen the couple in the complex for the last five years. “He was very depressed after he was shot himself several years ago,” she said.

Police said Newman was shot March 18, 2013, an event at the same cottage that sent him spiraling healthwise and financially. He had been a would-be hip hop producer.

Police said Newman was wounded at least 11 times in his back and found him lying on the living room floor of his home with his wife looking on.

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The shooter, said police, fired multiple rounds through a rear sliding glass door.

Officers who arrived initially thought Newman was dead but were able to get a brief statement identifying his shooter as Palm Bay Fire Rescue paramedics treated his injuries.

He identified his assailant as Damien Duff-Porter, a 38-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, who police later charged with attempted murder in connection with a dispute over a car. That trial was expected to go to court later this year, with Newman as a witness, officials reported.

Newman was then taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center where he began a painful but slow recovery.

“Three months later, we were home,” Jones wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to help with costs. “Every single day we get through together… We have slowly been trying to adjust to this new life, battling constant medical issues and setbacks. It has not been easy, but we are determined to beat all odds,” the message, posted five months ago to the site, read.

His wife, Amy Lee, continued to stay by his side as he attempted to return to the music business.

He also made public his disdain for the man police said changed his life.

“You won't fight me like warrior. But you shoot me in the back like the coward that You are…I’m still here on earth. Ready for anything punk,” Newman once wrote on the Facebook page of the man suspected of shooting him.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents are investigating the Tuesday night shooting and are expected to send their recommendations about the officer’s involvement to the state attorney’s office in several weeks.