LAKELAND, Fla. — Two Florida deputies were seriously injured and the man who shot them was killed when a gunfight broke out in a public park, the sheriff said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd praised his deputies as heroes, saying they were shot while trying to pull an uncooperative man from his car after he refused orders to leave on his own. They spotted the vehicle early Saturday at a provincial park after it closed for the night.
Judd told reporters Saturday that preliminary information from investigators indicated the slain man fired first.
“He asked for a gunfight, we gave him a gunfight,” the sheriff said. “And he’ll never get into a gunfight again, because he’s dead.”
Lt. Chad Anderson was hospitalized in critical but stable condition after a bullet passed through his arm and entered his chest, Judd said. Deputy Craig Smith was in stable condition in the intensive care unit after being shot four times in the right arm, according to the sheriff.
Both officers responded to a colleague’s call for backup after the man in the car refused to cooperate when the colleague tried to question him, Judd said. The sheriff’s office had ordered extra patrols in the area because a series of car thefts had occurred.
Before the shooting began, a total of four officers and two trainees tried to get the man out of his vehicle. Judd said Anderson and Smith were standing at the door of the car trying to pull the man out when the man pulled a gun and opened fire, the sheriff said. The deputies returned fire.
The sheriff did not immediately release the name of the man killed in the shootout.
Brian Haas, the state’s attorney whose judicial circuit includes Polk County, said his office is investigating.
“We want to act as quickly as possible, but being thorough is the most important thing,” Haas told reporters.