Florida Lotto jackpot winner shot by deputies near Orlando

Thursday, April 20, 2006 posted 11:39 AM EDT

FOREST CITY, Fla. - A Florida Lotto jackpot winner who fathered children with two sisters was shot and wounded by police Thursday for allegedly refusing to drop a handgun.

Robert Swofford Jr. was in stable condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center after undergoing surgery, Seminole County sheriff's Lt. Dennis Lemma said.

Lemma said deputies were investigating a rash of break-ins at an apartment complex near Swofford's home when they confronted him in a vacant field with a handgun in Forest City, about 10 miles north of Orlando.

Deputies Ronnie Remus and Bill Morris Jr. identified themselves as law enforcement officers and ordered Swofford several times to drop the 9mm, but he refused, Lemma said.

Swofford was shot at least three times when he "moved the firearm in a threatening manner," Lemma told the Orlando Sentinel for a story on its Web site.

Swofford won the $60 million jackpot just before Thanksgiving of 2004 and he accepted a lump-sum payment of $34.7 million. He was cast into the limelight after waiting to claim the money until he reached a divorce settlement with his wife, one of two sisters with whom he had fathered a child.

Swofford gave his wife more than $5 million as part of the settlement and set up a $1 million certificate of deposit to provide child support. His sister-in-law did not get any of the money, although a judge ordered Swofford to pay child support.

Swofford has since remarried his first wife.

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