Video released in Melbourne officer-involved shooting

Melbourne police officers shot and killed a man suspected in several recent armed robberies in a Burger King parking lot late Sunday night.

Police said they believed that 36-year-old Matthew Wayne McDaniel may have been casing the establishment on S. Harbor City Boulevard for another robbery.

Police said McDaniel drove into the parking lot in a white, older model Lincoln and when he saw officers – both plain clothes and uniformed – approaching, he pulled out a handgun. Within 30 seconds, he was met with a volley of bullets that shattered the car's windows and left him slumped over and bloodied in the driver's seat.

"He attempted to flee in his vehicle but his exit in the parking lot was blocked. At that point he produced a handgun and the officers were forced to take his life," said Chief Steve Mimbs of the Melbourne Police Department.

None of the six officers who fired their weapons at the car were injured and it was not immediately known if McDaniel was able to fire off a shot.

"They were forced to make a split second decision … this is a tragic event," he said of the shooting now being independently investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

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Dashboard camera footage released by Melbourne Police Department shows officers pulling into the parking lot behind a white sedan to block it in about 11:35 p.m. Sunday.

Plainclothes officers are seen getting out of an unmarked car and then getting back in, and radio recordings indicate they believed the suspect was going to flee on foot.

The video then shows the officers leaving their vehicles. Officers can be heard repeatedly warning the suspect offscreen to put down his gun.

A volley of gunfire can be heard as several officers fired at once. At that point, neither the officers or suspect are not visible in video.

As the shots end, the white sedan appears to roll across the parking lot behind the unmarked car until it comes to a stop against a streetlight, sending the pole wobbling.

The six officers were placed on administrative leave with pay, a routine move during officer-related shooting investigations.

Police believe McDaniel, who records show has a history of property crimes and a recent domestic violence-related arrest, acted alone in a string of robberies that began June 2 with a heist at a CVS pharmacy. Several of the stores held up captured images of McDaniel carrying out the robberies. "He wasn't really trying to hide himself," said Cmdr. Dan Lynch, showing a surveillance photo taken during a recent heist.

Police believe McDaniel may be responsible for up to five armed hold-ups that took place in less than two weeks.

McDaniel's death came months after Palm Bay police charged him with battery and petit theft in a Dec. 4 incident where he was suspected by his wife of taking a television set meant as a Christmas gift for his son and attempting to pawn it, reports show.

Police said he also took his wife's purse in a search for credit cards during the same incident. His wife, suffering from cancer and other medical conditions hid in the bathroom during the incident but police said McDaniel kicked the door down, screaming. The couple had gone to court for a divorce and his wife told officers that McDaniel, who was employed in the heart cauterization lab at Sebastian Medical Center in Indian River County, had been struggling with drugs, records show. His employment at the Sebastian Medical Center ended in December, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Melbourne police also arrested McDaniel on New Year's Eve following an investigation into over $30,000 in property missing from his parents' home. He was charged with dealing in stolen property and giving false verification of ownership of the stolen items to pawn shops.

Shortly after the robbery spree began earlier this month in Melbourne, officers began looking at McDaniel as a suspect and kept him under surveillance. Sunday, he was again under surveillance following an armed robbery at a nearby Chevron gas station. Melbourne police had responded to the same area Sunday after a man walked into a Chevron gas station and pulled out a handgun on a clerk. The robber, described as thin and wearing a red shirt, reached into the register and pulled out about $600 before fleeing to the back of the store. Police arrived within minutes and brought out a police dog to help track the suspect.

By Monday morning, crime scene investigators had spent the night taking photos inside the car and marking dozens of bullet casings on the pavement. McDaniel's body was removed from the car and turned over to the medical examiner's office in Rockledge.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is talking to witnesses, family members and others while also gathering evidence in the case. It was the third fatal police-related shooting to take place in Brevard County this year, authorities said.

"We never want to see things end this way," Mimbs said. "But I expect the officers to protect themselves."