A Walton County sheriff’s deputy has died from injuries sustained in a shooting outside a Dollar General store in Mossy Head on Wednesday afternoon.
- Sheriff Michael Adkinson announced during an evening press conference that Deputy Will May succumbed to his wounds at approximately 7:10 p.m. after doctors spent four hours trying to save his life at North Okaloosa Medical Center.
“Will fought the entire time…from returning fire to fighting for his own life,” Adkinson said.
The shooting occurred around 2:00 p.m. when Deputy May responded to a call about an individual causing a disturbance at the Dollar General on US Highway 90 near Lancelot Road. According to Adkinson, May was not scheduled to work Wednesday but had volunteered for overtime.
Adkinson said the interaction lasted only 10-15 seconds before turning deadly.
“Deputy May responded to the Dollar General store, made contact with the suspect. There was a brief discussion, approximately 10 to 15 seconds in which the suspect exited the store with Deputy May,” Adkinson explained. “Within 10 seconds of the suspect walking out of the store with Deputy May behind him, that suspect drew a firearm and fired multiple rounds.”
Despite being shot, May managed to draw his weapon and return fire. The sheriff said approximately 18 rounds were exchanged during the brief but violent confrontation. The suspect, whom Adkinson declined to name, died at the scene.
- May was wearing a ballistic vest that stopped multiple rounds, but one bullet went beneath the vest, causing the fatal injury. Fellow deputies, including one with EMT training, arrived within minutes to render aid before Walton County Fire Rescue transported him to the hospital.
A second-generation member of the sheriff’s office, May joined the department in 2014 as a communications officer before becoming a deputy in 2019. He had served as a field training officer since 2023. His father is a retired assistant fire chief, and his mother is a former dispatcher.
“He chose a lifetime of service,” Adkinson said.
The sheriff emphasized that May did everything correctly and there was no indication the situation would turn violent. The suspect was not going to be arrested but simply asked to leave the store.
- “I am struggling on behalf of this organization to make sense of this because I can tell you, there is absolutely nothing tactically wrong that Deputy May did,” Adkinson said. “I’ve been in this business 32 years. There is nothing I would’ve done differently.”
May leaves behind a wife and two teenage children. According to the sheriff, May’s wife had asked him not to work overtime that day.
“His wife told me a couple hours ago, ‘I asked him not to go to work today’,” Adkinson said. “It was the last call of his shift today, he was on his way home. He said, ‘I will catch this on my way home.'”
The sheriff’s office is requesting time to process the tragedy and properly honor May’s service.
“We would ask the public for a little bit of grace, a little bit of time to try and wrap our minds around this and to honor our deputy and to allow us to bury him with dignity and respect,” Adkinson said.
