The sheriff said Deputy Michael Hartwick had blocked two inside southbound lanes of the highway and was standing on the shoulder when he was struck by the front-loader, which was traveling about 20 mph.
The Tampa Police Department says that one of its officers was driving a suspect to jail early Sunday morning when he was nearly hit by two wrong-way drivers.
“The deputy was engaged in his regular physical therapy to treat his ongoing leg injury when the car plowed through the building hitting him. No one else was injured," the sheriff's office said.
“The primary objective of Destination Zero is to drive down causal factors that kill and injure our nation’s law enforcement officers,” said Marcia Ferranto, CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
"What are you thinking?" Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference Tuesday. "You just want to go ‘c’mon man, have you lost the last three brain cells, or do you just have cabbage for brains?'"
Moving ahead, the department has chosen to mostly use SUVs for patrol duties because of the extra gear storage, greater water capabilities and passenger space.
“I think the most surprising thing to me when I sat down in it was how skinny the steering wheel was. I had totally forgotten how large the steering wheel was, it was large, and it was very thin. So, it was kind of a flashback in time,” Judd says. “And I thought dad’gum, I don't even remember that the steering wheel was this flimsy.”
According to the Haines City Police Department, Officers Jose Ramirez and Gedrick Vargas were conducting a traffic stop Saturday around 5:20 p.m. when 19-year-old Robert Lee Smith III pointed a rifle at the officers and fled the scene in a black Toyota.
“We have counselors that have been trained in the unique needs of first responders’ children. I think they have this specific kind of life, and they deal with a certain kind of stress. And so that's what we're here to address in that particular program,” Crane explains.
“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of Agent Perez, who spent his entire life serving others from the United States armed forces to more than 30 years in law enforcement,” says FDLE Acting Commissioner Mark Glass.
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