DANIA BEACH, Fla. – Family and friends gathered in a Dania Beach parking lot to remember 28-year-old Joshua Gay. They lit candles and brought pictures of better days, photographs of Gay with his three children.
“They are never going to be the same without their father. I have my little 4-year-old asking me where’s Daddy?,” Rachell Renee Mercon said.
Gay was shot Friday night by Broward’s Sheriff’s Office deputies after they told him to put down a gun. They said he would not comply. Deputies ended up shooting Gay. He was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital and died.
BSO initially responded to a domestic disturbance call shortly before 7:30 p.m. Friday along SW 32 Terrace in Dania Beach. Deputies said Gay's girlfriend told them that she had an altercation with him and that he took her gun. Mercon said that he did take her gun, but she was never in fear of him.
She said it was someone else who called for help. The person who called police told them that Gay approached them outside of a store and was pointing the weapon. That person called 911 to report a man with a gun.
“He had took a gun and anything could have happened, but he’s not a dangerous person,” Mercon, Gay’s fiancée and mother of two of his children, said.
Deputies caught up to Gay along Stirling Road nearly two hours after the initial call. They said that when they tried to arrest him, he refused to put down the weapon and they were forced to fire. A firearm was recovered at the scene.
Mercon said she’s seen a video circulating where Gay was shot once and after he has fallen to the ground, more shots rang out from deputies. She believes his death could have been prevented.
“Obviously he needed help and they needed to talk to him and they didn’t even try. They could have had him down to the ground, but they shot him, waited and had everyone else shoot him, which was wrong.”
Local 10 has had a look at that video, taken by someone in a car nearby, and have reached out to deputies to see if it’s part of the investigation.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.
Mercon said he was a good father and person but suffered from mental health issues and couldn’t get past his drug addiction.
“He was amazing, he was so good with his kids. He put his kids before anyone,” she said. “So he was going through a lot of depression, he had anxiety and he had a drug addiction, he’s been dealing with that since he was like 14 years old.”