Oh, Florida Man, why don’t you ever do the smart thing?

A Florida deputy sheriff shot and killed a suspect who authorities say beat the deputy with an oar in a lake.

Lake County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Fred Jones tells local news outlets that deputies responded Tuesday night to a hit-and-run incident in which the suspect crashed into a store and then another vehicle.

The suspect ran and ended up in a lake in Fruitland Park. Jones says that when deputies caught up, the suspect began to strike a deputy with an oar.

Jones says the deputy, who was in chest-deep water, used a stun gun on the suspect. He says the suspect again tried to hit the deputy in the head with the oar, which is when the deputy shot him.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the deceased suspect in this incident was probably “less than sober.”

I’m more than a little surprised that the deputy attempted to use the taser while both men were in the water, feet apart.

I don’t claim to be an electrical engineer, but it seems to me that there was very little likelihood that the taser would work at all if in the lake, and if it did, it would have likely stunned both men, leading to the distinct possibility of both men drowning.

To be fair to the deputy, though, I’m pretty sure that neither the academy nor continuing law enforcement training modules covered “taser deployment while standing chest deep in a lake.” If anything, he’s probably to be commended for attempting to take the oar-armed suspect into custody using less lethal means before reverting to his handgun.