SHALIMAR, Fla – A gunman fatally shot a sheriff’s deputy outside a lawyer’s office Tuesday and then barricaded himself inside a motel, where he exchanged gunfire with other deputies and was killed, authorities said.

Joel Dixon Smith, 33, postal worker and slain Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Myers, 64

Joel Dixon Smith, 33, was being served a domestic violence restraining order at the lawyer’s office and was supposed to be turning over his guns to Okaloosa County Deputy Bill Myers, 64, when he pulled out a concealed weapon and shot the deputy multiple times in the back of the head and back, authorities said.

Sheriff Larry Ashley called Smith “a sick little coward.”

Smith was a rural carrier associate for the Postal Service [beginning in Niceville in 2013, USPS said in a brief statement] fled in his vehicle, heading to a Comfort Suites about 10 miles away in Niceville, where he had previously booked a room. He barricaded himself inside and deputies fired tear gas into his room. He charged out firing and was shot by deputies, Ashley said.

No one else was hurt.

Smith had been arrested in 2008 for domestic battery, Ashley said, but had no other details. The restraining order was meant to protect Smith’s wife.

source: After deputy slain, gunman shot dead