By JOE SEELIG

DESOTO CITY — A DeSoto City man who died Friday afternoon after a shootout with the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office Special Response Team killed himself with his own 45-caliber handgun, sheriff’s Maj. David Paeplow said Monday.
Charles E. Schmidt, 46, of 5226 Barnum St., died at Highlands Regional Medical Center was being hunted down by authorities after he reportedly shot his wife, Christine, during a domestic dispute, and escaped.
A sheriff’s manhunt for him through an orange grove ended with shots being fired.
The District 10 Medical Examiner’s Office concluded Sunday that a self-inflicted bullet to the head is what killed Schmidt.
“He was hit six or seven times by our gunfire,” Paeplow said. “But all were non-lethal. He sustained several shots in the arm and two or three in the torso.”
Schmidt’s wife was doing well enough to be interviewed Sunday by sheriff’s detectives, Paeplow said. However, he did not know what caused the argument during which she was reportedly shot in the stomach by her husband.
Nine special response team members were in the grove with a sheriff’s K-9 unit, but only five fired their weapons, Paeplow said Friday. Those five team members are on temporary administrative leave with full pay until a shooting review is conducted by the sheriff’s office. The K-9 officer did not fire his weapon.
Some of the response team members thought Schmidt may have raised his gun toward his head, but in the heat of the exchange none were sure that he shot himself.
Investigators did not know initially if the gunshot to the head was from the special response team members or from Schmidt himself.
Schmidt’s gun was recovered and none of the sheriff’s deputies were injured in the incident.
Schmidt was ultimately tracked to a point nearly a mile and a half away from the Schmidt home, Paeplow said.
Highlands County Sheriff’s Office Central Records confirmed that Schmidt had been arrested on Aug. 28, in connection with an Aug. 27 incident involving allegations he shot his neighbor in the buttock with a 22-caliber rifle during an argument over money. That case was not prosecuted, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
According to neighbors, the couple was often overheard engaged in an argument.