Adam Bounds
The Keys man shot by a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission police officer had threatened to light himself on fire with officers on board his houseboat before he was wounded, the Monroe sheriff said Wednesday.
Adam Bruce Bounds, 42, was shot by the officer on his houseboat in Cow Key Channel in Key West on Tuesday afternoon during a police welfare check.
Bounds’ family identified him to FLKeysNews.com.
Bounds had called the FWC in Tallahassee over having missed a court date for owning a derelict vessel, Sheriff Rick Ramsay said during an interview with U.S. 1 Radio.
Bounds threatened suicide while on the phone to Tallahassee and the local FWC was contacted.
“The subject had a gas can and a lighter, maybe had poured some gas on himself and made a comment he was going to torch himself,” Ramsay said.
Ramsay said the officers had to worry about their personal safety first and could have been caught up in an explosion if Bounds had gone through with his threats.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is in charge of the investigation. An FWC spokesman said they could not release any additional details on the shooting.
Bounds’ sister and mother were driving to Florida on Wednesday to see Bounds in the Miami-area trauma center he was airlifted to on Tuesday.
They learned that the man shot by FWC was Adam only by calling the hospital after it was reported online.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through this,” said his brother-in-law Jeremy Barlow, of Springfield Illinois, where Bounds is also from.
This is a developing story.