A second Kissimmee, Fla., police officer died Saturday after an attack the night before.
A second Kissimmee, Fla., police officer died Saturday after an attack the night before.
Sgt. Richard “Sam” Howard died Saturday from wounds he received when he and fellow officer Matthew Baxter were shot during a routine stop, a department spokeswoman said.
Baxter died Friday night shortly after the shooting.
Baxter was investigating three suspicious people about 9: 30 p.m. when Howard came to help and a “scuffle” broke out, Police Chief Jeff O’Dell said. That’s when police say Marine veteran Everett Glenn Miller, 45, shot the officers.
Investigators are still working to understand the details of what happened in the moments before the shooting, officials said.
The officers – who were wearing body armor under their uniforms – did not have a chance to return fire. O’Dell said “it looked like they were surprised” by the gunfire.
Miller fled to a bar, where Osceola County Sheriff’s Office detectives found him about 11: 30 p.m. When the officers approached him, Miller reached for his waistband, but a deputy tackled him to the ground and arrested him, O’Dell said.
“Extremely brave and heroic actions by the deputy, there were other people in the vicinity, ” O’Dell said. “They went hands-on, tackled him to the ground and secured him (and) located a 9mm and .22 revolver on his person.”
The Sheriff’s Office recently took Miller into custody under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows involuntary commitment of people in mental health crises. Miller, who has no criminal record in Florida, was enlisted in the Marines from 1989 to 2010, according to military records.
Baxter, 27, was married to a fellow Kissimmee Police officer and had four young children, O’Dell said. Howard, 36, has one child.
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