Yahoo Autos Florida Sheriff Defends Deputy After Fatal Crash
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Law enforcement officers have to constantly be on guard while on duty since, as we’ve seen countless times, things can escalate in a split second. That exactly what happened when an Ocala County Deputy responded to a call involving a woman accused of trying to take an older woman’s keys in a shopping center parking lot back on February 1.
Watch Ohio police arrest an 8-year-old for car theft.
Upon arriving, the deputy pulled up next to the suspect who was on foot, rolled down his passenger window, and told the woman to meet him around the rear of his patrol SUV. However, the woman had another plan, jumping into the vehicle and taking off as the deputy desperately tried stopping her.
Eventually, deputies got into a pursuit with the stolen vehicle, which crashed into a pickup truck while going in excess of 100 mph. Two people from South Carolina who were in that truck died. So did the suspect. A third person is in the hospital, and it sounds like there’s a chance they won’t make it. Now people want answers.
Some have blamed the deputy for supposedly sloppy work. However, the sheriff vehemently defended his deputy to the media, claiming “he did nothing wrong” and that even the sheriff with his many years of experience would’ve faced the same situation.
If you watch the bodycam footage, which we’ve included in a local news broadcast you can see how quickly the situation escalates. It’s easy to armchair quarterback what the deputy did, but we genuinely wonder if this case won’t result in a change of police not only for the Ocala County Sheriff’s Office but other law enforcement agencies.
We’ve seen a number of cases involving suspects stealing police cars as well as ambulances and firetrucks. Surely there has to be a way to prevent this, some sort of technology that won’t allow the vehicle to go into gear without the proper person in the driver’s seat. If a company can figure out a solution that isn’t cumbersome for law enforcement, it could stand to profit greatly while doing the public a huge service.
Image via YouTube
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