On the morning of August 30, 2025, Damien Martin, 42, male, was shot inside a residence on the 700 block of Alabama Road in Lehigh Acres, Florida. Deputies with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrived shortly after 11 a.m.; despite lifesaving efforts, Damien Martin, 42, male, was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators immediately treated the case as a domestic incident and contained the area, assuring neighbors there was no broader threat while Major Crimes detectives began processing
the home.
By that evening and into the next day, the inquiry focused on a family confrontation that erupted into gunfire. Detectives learned the victim’s stepson, Isaiah Barsallo, left the house after the shooting, then drove to Sheriff’s Office headquarters and surrendered. He was arrested within hours and booked on August 31, 2025, on a murder charge, as the investigation detailed an argument that escalated when Barsallo produced a firearm and fired multiple rounds. Booking records listed him as 19 with a birthday of August 31, 2006.
Family members publicly identified the victim as Damien Martin, 42, male, and memorial pages began to fill with tributes. News updates described how the confrontation between stepson and stepfather had unfolded earlier that day inside the Alabama Road home, while candles were lit online in memory of Damien Martin, 42, male, from Lehigh Acres.
In the weeks that followed, the case took a sharp turn. On October 2, 2025, prosecutors determined that the stepson’s use of deadly force was justified; the murder charge was dropped and Isaiah Barsallo was released. The decision reframed the tragedy from an initial homicide arrest to a fatal domestic encounter in which authorities concluded the shooting met Florida’s standards for lawful self-defense.
