HERNANDO/PASCO COUNTY LINE, Fla. — One suspect is dead and two more were interviewed by authorities following a series of alleged crimes in Hernando and Pasco counties that ended with a neighborhood shootout in the Spring Hill area.

Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said the series of events that led to the shooting began with a home invasion in Hudson around 2:30 a.m.

"There's a lot of crimes, oftentimes, that are intertwined, and this is no exception," Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Nienhuis stressed that the information authorities initially provided was extremely preliminary and subject to change.

Nocco said a man and woman entered the home of an 89-year-old man through an unlocked door while another woman waited in a car outside.

The two allegedly tied the man up, took his car, and fled.

Nienhuis said that car was later discovered on fire around 6:45 a.m. on Dandelion Court in Spring Hill.

According to the Pasco Sheriff's Office, detectives found the vehicle one of the female suspects was driving. They found the two female suspects getting rid of the home invasion victim's property.

The sheriff's office said the women admitted to the home invasion and said the male suspect was in a home on Holly Hock Lane in Spring Hill. That man ran from that home and Hernando deputies let Pasco detectives know the suspect entered another occupied home on Bancroft Avenue and held the people inside, two senior citizens and children, hostage.

"She was panic-stricken," neighbor Donna Villano said of one of the people inside the home the suspect entered. Villano said she'd spoken with the woman after the incident.

"She had her two granddaughters, and it was her birthday and she was taking the kids in the pool. He came to the garage door with a gun, and her husband said, 'What do you want?' And he said, 'I want money.' So, her husband took out his pockets and said, 'Here's the money, go,'" Villano said.

The sheriffs said the suspect began firing at deputies from the garage. Three Hernando deputies and one Pasco deputy who's part of a K9 unit returned fire. Authorities said the suspect fled from the house and continued firing. Nienhuis said the suspect was hit by at least one round on Davenport Lane. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"After the suspect was shot, they did render aid. Unfortunately, he succumbed to his wounds, but it goes back to what I said before: his actions dictated our actions. His actions of shooting at us, we will return fire," Nocco said. 

Authorities said no one else was seriously injured. Villano said she's grateful for the outcome, in part because she thinks hers could've been the home the suspect tried to enter. 

"It was a rattling, like shaking the whole gate," Villano said of a sound she heard at her gate shortly before shots rang out. "I said, 'Somebody's probably breaking in our backyard.'"

Villano said she's thankful her neighbors, though shaken, are okay.

"Something I never experienced in my life, and I never want to experience again," Villano said of the incident.

The sheriffs said the two other suspects were being interviewed Tuesday afternoon. FDLE is investigating the deputy-involved shooting. The Pasco and Hernando Sheriff's Offices will investigate the incidents that happened in their jurisdictions.