Firefighter slain after confrontation, deputies say

Sam Dreher, a lieutenant medic with the Charlotte County Fire & EMS agency, was supposed to work a Monday shift.Instead, battalion chiefs had to tell his co-workers at fire stations across the county that Dreher, 39, would not be coming to work again.On Sunday night, Dreher, a resident of North Port, died at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton after he was shot in an altercation in Sarasota County the day before.

On Monday, sheriff's deputies upped an attempted murder charge filed against Michael L. Minor Jr., 27,Grain oil hoses suppliers of the 1900 block of North Conrad Avenue in Sarasota, to first-degree murder.Minor is also charged with attempted robbery with a firearm and burglary with a firearm.On Saturday afternoon, sheriff's detectives say Minor went to the Saratoga Place apartments at 5070 Central Sarasota Parkway in Palmer Ranch to get items he believed were in a vehicle belonging to Dreher.

Minor reportedly entered the vehicle but Dreher confronted him. Minor demanded Dreher's wallet and cellphone,China Tank truck hoses manufacturers detectives say.The two argued, and when Dreher saw that Minor had a 9 mm handgun, he fled up the stairs, an arrest report states. Dreher was found wounded on the stairs between the second and third floors.The Sheriff's Office said four shots were fired and that Dreher was shot twice.