FLORIDA — Four people are dead including a mother who was still cradling her now-deceased baby in what Florida sheriff’s deputies are calling a massive gunbattle early Sunday with a suspect they said was “ready for battle.”

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the unidentified suspect was dressed in full body armour including a bulletproof vest when he was found outside a Lakeland home that had been booby-trapped.

After two rounds of gunfire with police and deputies where dozens if not hundreds of rounds were exchanged, Judd said, the suspect was shot once and left the home to surrender.

Inside the home, authorities found an 11-year-old girl who had been shot multiple times.

She told deputies there were three dead people inside, Judd said during a news conference. — Agencies