POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Three times, in as many weeks, Polk County sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a suspect who attacked or threatened them.
“I’ve been with the sheriff’s office my entire adult life and I've never seen what we’ve experienced in the last three weeks,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
Watch full report from Rebecca Petit
The first happened on April 11, when the sheriff said a man was breaking into homes in Lake Wales. When deputies arrived, he was fatally shot after refusing to drop a knife while walking towards deputies.
On April 18, a Polk deputy and a Bartow police officer were shot during a gunfight with a man outside Lowe’s Home Improvement store in Bartow. The suspect died at the hospital.
In the latest incident on April 25, deputies shot and killed a man charging at them with a knife at U.S. 92 and Combee Road in Lakeland.
“Three Fridays in a row, where people have tried to kill my deputies. Three Fridays in a row where our deputies were forced to use deadly force,” Judd said during a Facebook live update.
Judd tells ABC Action New his deputies face significant pressure in these situations.
“Certainly, our goal is to take everyone into custody peacefully. But make no mistake about it, if you try to kill my deputies, if you attack them with a deadly weapon, we are going to defend ourselves. We will shoot you; we’ll shoot you a lot. That's a guarantee,” Judd said.
In every case, the sheriff quickly addresses the community through a Facebook live update, a method he often employs to communicate to the public.
“I’m going to always be transparent. If someone forces us to protect ourselves by shooting them, I'm going to tell the community and I'm going to tell them very quickly,” said Judd.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office does not provide body cameras for its deputies or use in-dash cameras.
“He wants us to hear his word and we’re just not going to take what he says. We need some video. And we’re not going to take his officers words. Show us,” said Rev. Clayton Cowart, founder of Poor & Minority Justice Association.
Cowart said his office is swamped with complaints from people who say they or a family were treated with excessive or deadly force by deputies.
“Two or three times a day that we are getting calls on issues like this. It has become really overwhelming for our staff. We're trying to now hire people to take some of these cases. We have several lawyers that we are outsourcing,” Cowart said.
The Officer Involved-Shooting Task Force of the 10th Judicial Circuit investigates each case.
The results will be turned over to State Attorney Brian Haas, who conducts a separate investigation and makes a final ruling.
“In addition to that there’s a medical examiners investigation. We also have an administration investigation so that we make sure the systems, processes, techniques and training were appropriate. So, there are at least four investigations,” said Judd.
Cowart believes families impacted by officer shootings should do their do diligence.
“Get a lawyer, get someone to investigate. Get someone to look into it. Even if it comes down to an autopsy. Make sure that you get someone outside of the county to do an autopsy. Because there is this good old boy system that works in Polk County and people are covering for each other,” Cowart said.
"There are no safeguards, and I feel like that's part of where the system failed"
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