Published February 7th, 2025
A Suwannee County, Florida Sheriff's Deputy was shot early Friday morning. Late Thursday evening, four people were shot, two fatally, during a robbery at a gas station in Quincy, Florida. Based on surveillance footage at the scene, police were able to broadcast a description of the suspect and the vehicle he fled in. At approximately 3:30 a.m. on Friday morning, law enforcement officers in Suwannee County, Florida, about 90 miles from the first incident, observed a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle that fled the scene of the shooting in Quincy. When officers attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver led them on a pursuit that resulted in the vehicle crashing on US Route 90 West near Live Oak, FL. The operator of the vehicle, later identified by police as the perpetrator of the Quincy shooting, opened fire on officers as he fled the scene on foot, striking a Suwannee County Sheriff's Deputy in the chest and foot. At approximately 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning, Live Oak (Florida) Police responded to a report of a suspicious person. As officers approached the suspicious person, he opened fire on the officers. Officers returned fire, striking, and fatally wounding the assailant, who was later identified as the perpetrator of the Thursday night shooting in Quincy and the early Friday morning shooting of the deputy.
The Suwannee County Deputy who was shot was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of his injuries. In a subsequent statement to the press, Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young stated that the deputy avoided more serious injury as the round that struck him in the chest was stopped by the ballistic-resistant vest he was wearing at the time of incident. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is conducting an independent investigation of the incident.
