POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A suspect is dead, and two Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies are hospitalized after being shot early on Saturday morning in Lakeland.
According to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Lt. Chad Anderson took one gunshot to the chest and one to the arm. After undergoing emergency surgery, his condition is stable but serious.
Deputy Craig Smith took four gunshot wounds to the chest. He is receiving intensive care, and his status is stable.
Judd said Saturday that the Sheriff’s Office has stepped up its presence in the area due to frequent concession stand burglaries at Hunt Fountain Park in north Lakeland.
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One of the local deputies saw a car at the park, which closes at 10 p.m.
According to Judd, the man in the car refused to comply with the deputy or get out of the car when the deputy approached him. Judd said, unknown to the deputies, the suspect was a “sovereign citizen.”
The deputy requested assistance.
“He was Moorish, and Moorish sovereign citizens are known to believe that federal law, state law, local law does not apply to them; they are known to resist law enforcement.”
Anderson and Smith arrived and demanded the suspect get out of the vehicle.
“So they started trying to take our suspect out of the vehicle. When he produced a gun and started shooting,” said Judd.
“But we killed the suspect. We killed him graveyard dead. And we kill him dead in a gunfight. A firefight,” said Judd.
The suspect was not identified pending notification of next of kin.
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