Man shot to death by Manatee deputy was former law enforcement officer

MANATEE -- A man shot and killed by a Manatee County Sheriff's Office deputy Sunday afternoon reportedly had a history of violent outbursts and formerly worked as a law enforcement officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Donna Stoddart, the wife of Marc Stoddart, 50, called law enforcement to the 4800 block of Bookelia Circle at about 4:50 p.m., saying her husband was drunk, armed with a knife and threatening to hurt her and himself. Stoddart was outside and armed with a knife when deputies arrived and had cut his wrists.

Deputies confronted the suspect and told him repeatedly to drop the knife. He refused, then approached a deputy in what the release said was "a threatening manner."

Dave Bristow, spokesman for the sheriff's office, said Stoddart was about 10 feet away from the deputy when he fatally shot Stoddart.

Bristow said the sheriff's office typically names deputies involved in fatal shootings when they're ready to come back to work.

"That could be from three days to about a week," Bristow said.

The couple has an 11-year-old son who was home when the argument started, but Bristow said he did not witness the shooting.

A neighbor who asked not to be identified said it was not the first violent outburst from Stoddart, who lived at the location with his wife and child for about 10 years. Years ago on Halloween, she said she was outside when she heard a commotion from the Stoddart house.

"We heard yelling and screaming and crashing and banging," she said. "Donna and the son came running out, got in the car and drove off."

The next day, the neighbor said she saw broken furniture that looked like chairs stacked in the front lawn. She said FWC officials came and helped move the furniture, and the neighbor said she believed he was cut from the force soon after that. She doesn't remember how many years ago that occurred.

Gary Morse, spokesman for the FWC, confirmed that Stoddart had worked for the FWC as a law enforcement officer starting in August 2007, after he graduated from the academy, and that he resigned on Nov. 24, 2008.

"His law enforcement status was null and void at that time," Morse said.

Morse said he wasn't sure what prompted the resignation and couldn't confirm if it had anything to do with the Halloween incident.

According to personnel files with the FWC, Stoddart was also employed by the Florida Department of Corrections in Arcadia between February and April 2005. He said in his application that he left that job because he was injured in an auto accident and that along with a long commute made the job difficult.

Stoddart also served in the U.S. Navy from 1983 to 1987, when he was honorably discharged. He was court-martialed twice for being drunk and disorderly, once because he was told to leave a bar on base and refused and the second because he returned to the base drunk and refused to go to bed.

Stoddart said in his application to the FWC that the only illegal drug he had ever used was marijuana.

The FWC only released one instance of Stoddart being reprimanded, when he accidentally caused minor damage to a patrol boat. He was not disciplined for the offense.

Donna Stoddart, a first-grade teacher at Samoset Elementary School, declined a request for an interview Monday.

Kate Irby, Herald online/political reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7055. You can follow her on Twitter@KateIrby

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Man shot to death by Manatee deputy was former law enforcement officer ."