{"id":412246,"date":"2026-09-27T20:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T20:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/412246\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T20:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T20:00:11","slug":"deputies-confront-sword-wielding-florida-man-after-reported-home-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/412246\/","title":{"rendered":"Deputies confront sword-wielding Florida man after reported home invasion"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Florida man was tased and arrested Tuesday after deputies say he forced his way into a home while armed with a sword and refused commands to drop the weapon.<\/p>\n

Deputies with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office<\/a> say they responded to a residence in the 3400 block of NW 91st Street in Gainesville during the early morning hours for a reported armed burglary.<\/p>\n

The caller told deputies a man had forced his way into the home with a sword and forced the occupants outside against their will, according to the sheriff’s office.<\/p>\n

When deputies arrived, they found 26-year-old Josiah Smith still holding the sword, the sheriff’s office said.<\/p>\n

See also: West Palm Beach murder suspect identified after deadly early-morning shooting<\/a><\/p>\n

Bodycam footage shows the deputy attempted to establish a rapport with Smith, calmly asking him to drop the weapon and give his name. Smith refused to comply with deputies’ commands to drop the sword or get on the ground.<\/p>\n

Deputies then used a less-lethal launcher, reportedly firing a foam round at Smith in an attempt to get him to drop the sword. When that was unsuccessful, deputies deployed a Taser and detained Smith.<\/p>\n

Investigators determined Smith and the victim did not know each other.<\/p>\n

Smith was arrested and charged with armed burglary of an occupied dwelling, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, armed kidnapping and resisting without violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Florida man was tased and arrested Tuesday after deputies say he forced his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-412246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}