A local reporter found herself looking down the barrel of a gun after knocking on the door of an off-duty public safety telecommunicator she'd hoped to interview, officials say.
Shortly after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Shauna Justice, who lives near New Smyrna Beach, answered a WESH-2 News reporter's knocks with a gun in hand, Volusia County sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said.
Justice, 28, was recently suspended after an internal investigation revealed she'd been on her personal cellphone as her trainee directed first responders to the wrong location.
Justice yelled at the reporter, who didn't have a mic or camera in hand, to get off her property and continued to point her gun at the reporter who was backing away and asking Justice to calm down, Davidson said. Justice told deputies she thought she was justified in pointing the gun at the reporter because she “felt harassed to the point where she felt threatened.”
Officials determined Justice was not justified in her use of the gun, and she was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Davidson said.
Justice, who was hired in 2007, has been suspended without pay, and a disciplinary decision is pending based on the results of an internal investigation.
She was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail later Tuesday after posting $1,500 bail.