Officer Justin Whitten of the Florence (AL) Police Department comforts a child who has just witnessed her father attacking his family. (Photo: Florence PD/Facebook)
Florence, AL, Police Chief Ron Tyler used social media to recognize the work of one officer who responded during Wednesday’s reported attack by one man against six members of his family.
Tyler singled out Officer Justin Whitten on the department’s Facebook page for his conduct during the incident.
Comparing him to the Biblical figure Benaiah, Tyler said, “there are men and women in law enforcement, men like Officer Justin Whitten and others within the Florence Police Department, who out of concern for their village, would choose to go down into a pit on a snowy, winter day to do battle with a lion.”
Members of the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office and the Florence Police Department reports that a man had attacked six family members with multiple weapons, AL.com reports.
According to court documents, the man, identified as Kyle Lyn Seeley, 34, began his attack by launching a Molotov cocktail into the home shared by his parents and his children. He fired shots at his parents before cutting his adult brother with a machete, injuring him seriously, prosecutors say.
He also reportedly injured his own children before barricading himself on the property, sparking a standoff. SWAT took him into custody.
In a picture Tyler shared at the scene, Officer Whitten can be seen comforting one of the children.
The victims are recovering. No one was killed.
