A woman was hospitalized with dog bites, and deputies said the man they are seeking fled on foot after the dog’s owner was shot.
LEESBURG, Fla. — A dog attack near a homeless encampment in Leesburg on Friday morning turned into a deadly shooting and a widening search for a 43-year-old man after deputies said he tried to stop the attack, shot the dog’s owner instead and ran from the scene.
The violence quickly became more than a single roadside emergency. It brought homicide detectives, animal services officers and school officials into the same fast-moving response, put a nearby middle school on lockdown and left investigators with major questions still unanswered by Friday evening. Authorities had not released the names of the man who died or the woman who was bitten, and they had not publicly said whether the shooting will be treated as an accident, a reckless act or a criminal killing once the man they want to question is found.
Deputies said the episode began around 7:30 a.m. Friday near 1904 Griffin Road, in the area of Griffin Road and Tally Box Road, where witnesses reported that a woman was being attacked by a large dog near a homeless camp. According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Matthew Lee Pasco, 43, stepped in and tried to shoot the animal. Instead, deputies said, the dog’s owner moved between Pasco and the woman and was struck by the gunfire. Deputy Stephanie Earley, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said the owner was taken from the scene to a hospital, where he later died. The woman was also taken to a hospital after suffering dog bites. Authorities have not said how long the attack lasted before the shot was fired, whether anyone tried to pull the dog away before Pasco used a handgun, or what, if anything, was said in the final moments before the owner stepped into the line of fire.
Even in the first public accounts, investigators made clear that key pieces of the story remain unsettled. Earley said the attacking animal was a large dog, but officials did not identify the breed, the age of the dog or whether it belonged to the dead man alone. Authorities later said two dogs were shot and one was killed, adding another layer of uncertainty to what already appeared to be a chaotic scene. Investigators have not publicly laid out which rounds struck which dog, who fired each shot that hit an animal, or whether the dog that first attacked the woman survived. The sheriff’s office also did not release the dead man’s name Friday as relatives were still being notified. The woman’s identity was also withheld, and deputies did not say whether she had any connection to Pasco or the dog’s owner. A 911 recording released by authorities captured screams and a report of a gunshot wound, but it did not answer the most important questions about intent and timing.
The search for Pasco quickly widened beyond the immediate scene because the shooting happened near Carver Middle School. School officials and deputies said the campus was placed on lockdown as a precaution while officers searched roads, wooded edges and nearby open ground. The move reflected the danger facing both investigators and the public: the man they were looking for had not been detained, and deputies said he may still have had the handgun used in the shooting. Earley said Pasco is believed to be homeless, known to frequent the Leesburg area and familiar with the camp where the confrontation unfolded. Deputies described him as 5 feet, 11 inches tall and about 150 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes and a prominent scar on the right side of his face. They said he was last seen wearing a navy blue T-shirt and fleeing on foot. The lockdown underscored how quickly a dispute that began with an animal attack became a broader public safety problem touching a school, a neighborhood road network and a law enforcement perimeter.
The setting also helps explain why the case drew such an urgent response. The area around Griffin Road is a patchwork of roadways, wooded stretches and informal encampment space, which can make it harder for deputies to track people moving on foot and harder for witnesses to provide clean, complete accounts. That kind of scene often leaves detectives piecing together what happened from fragments: who first saw the dog attack, who shouted, where each person was standing when the gun came out and how the owner ended up in front of the shot. By late Friday, officials had confirmed only the broad outline. Pasco appeared to intervene during the attack, the owner was struck instead of the dog and the woman who was being bitten survived. Beyond that, several facts still sat in the gray area between witness recollection and forensic proof. Deputies had not said whether Pasco and the dead man knew each other well, whether the owner tried to grab the dog, calm it, shield it or confront the armed man, or whether the woman had been walking through the area when the attack began.
Records cited by local coverage show Pasco has a criminal history, but investigators did not suggest Friday that any past arrest explains what happened near the camp. Instead, officials focused on locating him and preserving the scene. Animal enforcement officers impounded dogs after the shooting, and homicide detectives began working a case that is unusual in both its origin and its possible legal path. Fatal shootings are often sorted early into broad categories such as self-defense, murder, manslaughter or accident. This one remained harder to define because the single shot that killed a man was fired during an attempt, according to deputies, to stop an ongoing attack on a woman. At the same time, the fact that the gunman fled left authorities without the statement they would normally want at the start of a case like this. Until Pasco is found and questioned, investigators are left to build their timeline through witness interviews, physical evidence, medical findings and whatever can be learned from the dogs that were taken from the scene.
What happens next will likely be measured in official steps rather than quick public answers. The sheriff’s office had not announced an arrest or any formal criminal charge by Friday evening, and Pasco was still being described only as a person of interest. Before the case moves cleanly toward prosecutors, detectives still have to find him, lock down the sequence of the gunfire and complete the medical and forensic work that will define how the death is classified. The dead man’s autopsy, the woman’s medical treatment for the bites and any ballistic testing tied to the handgun could all shape the final account. Investigators also may need to decide whether the evidence supports a theory of criminal negligence, an unlawful use of a gun, or some other charge that fits a shooting carried out during an effort to stop an animal attack. For the public, the next likely milestones are simpler and more immediate: Pasco’s capture or surrender, the release of the victim’s name and a fuller explanation from detectives once the search phase ends.
By Friday night, the scene had narrowed from a broad emergency to a set of stark facts. One man was dead. One woman was recovering from dog bites. One of the dogs had been killed, another had been taken by authorities and the man deputies want to question had not been found. Earley said Pasco is believed to still be armed with a handgun, a detail that kept the case urgent even after the victim had been taken to the hospital and the school lockdown had run its course. The sheriff’s office account, repeated across public briefings throughout the day, stayed consistent on the central point: the shot that killed the owner was fired while Pasco was trying to stop the dog attack. What remains unsettled is everything around that fact, including the final seconds before the trigger was pulled and whether the case will ultimately be remembered as a failed rescue, a reckless shooting or both.
As of Friday evening, deputies were still searching for Pasco, the woman remained under treatment and the dead man’s identity had not been released. The next public milestone is Pasco’s capture or surrender, followed by a fuller accounting of the gunfire that turned a dog attack into a homicide investigation.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.