VERO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff’s deputy was killed while attempting to serve an eviction notice Friday in a beachside residence on the state’s Atlantic coast, a county sheriff said.
The accused shooter, another deputy and a locksmith working for law enforcement were all wounded, Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said at a news conference. The locksmith is in surgery and listed in critical condition, as is the shooter, Flowers said. The other deputy was hit in the shoulder and is recovering, he added.
The 47-year-old deputy who died, Terri Mashkow, was a 25-year-veteran of the sheriff’s office, Flowers said. He grew emotional while speaking about Mashkow, describing her as an “amazing deputy” who he worked alongside his entire career.
“I can tell you that our team will feel this forever,” Flowers said.
The officers had gone to the house in the Bermuda Club neighborhood near Vero Beach, where a resident of the home was evicting her son, Flowers said. While officers were in the entryway, the son grabbed a firearm and began “indiscriminately firing” at the deputies, the sheriff said.
Authorities identified the alleged shooter as Michael Halberstam, who investigators found had been terminated from his job at UPS and had a previous narcotics charge and a misdemeanor assault charge. Flowers said the suspect had been posting “some negative items” about the Indian River Sheriff’s Office on a social media account.
Over the past month, the sheriff’s office had received seven calls from the home, “almost all” of which were from the mother calling about her son, Flowers said. Still, deputies weren’t expecting any trouble when they arrived for the eviction Friday since “this was a standard call for service,” the sheriff said.
It was not immediately known whether Mashkow fired her weapon. “Our deputies did fire at him and he has been struck multiple times,” Flowers said.
Investigators are still looking for more information on the suspect, Flowers said, but as of Friday there was nothing in his record to preclude him from legally having a firearm.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier acknowledged the shooting during an earlier news conference Friday, saying, “Just wanted to take a couple moments of silence for the officers that were in the line of duty.”
Vero Beach is more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach.
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