Sovereign citizen dies in gunfight after shooting 2 Polk County deputies, sheriff says

POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Two Polk County deputies are in the ICU after being shot early Saturday by a man who Sheriff Grady Judd said was a sovereign citizen that was killed when backup deputies returned fire.

Around 12:22 a.m., a deputy assigned to Hunt Fountain Park due to its designation as a burglary hotspot noticed a vehicle there despite the park’s 10 p.m. closing time, Judd said at a news conference Saturday morning. The deputy approached the vehicle and spoke with the man inside, asking him why he was in the park, yet the sheriff said he wouldn’t cooperate.

“At this point, he’s resisting a law enforcement officer in the performance of their duty. He’s also violating a county ordinance,” Judd said. “She retreats to her vehicle and she asks for additional backup because he is resisting her. At that time, among other deputies, Lt. Chad Anderson arrives, and Deputy Sheriff Craig Smith.”

Judd said there were a total of four deputies and two trainees working the scene when the shooting occurred.

“Little did they realize at that moment in time that this was a sovereign citizen. He was Moorish, and Moorish sovereign citizens are known to believe that federal law, state law, local law does not apply to them. They are known to resist law enforcement and there is a history where they shoot police officers,” Judd said. “So they started trying to take our suspect out of the vehicle when he produced the gun and started shooting.”

Lt. Anderson was shot in the arm and the bullet went into his chest while Deputy Smith suffered four gunshot wounds, Judd said.

“Lt. Anderson got some rounds off. The backup deputies shot a lot, and we don’t know how much yet, we’re in the initial stages of crime scene investigations and we can report that to you later, but we killed the suspect,” Judd said. “We killed him graveyard dead and we killed him dead in a gunfight, a firefight with our deputies who had no idea they were dealing with anyone other than someone being in the park after the park closed, being suspicious and resisting our efforts to identify why they were in the area.”

At the news conference, Judd said that Lt. Anderson underwent emergency surgery and was in critical but stable condition at last check, describing Deputy Smith as in stable condition. Both were in the ICU as of Saturday morning.

Release of the suspect’s identity is pending next of kin notification, Judd said, adding it appeared the suspect was living out of the vehicle and that another law enforcement agency reportedly had an interaction with him at another county park about a month ago.

Brian Haas, state attorney of the 10th Judicial Circuit, said work was underway to make a report of the shooting, what would involve multiple investigations.

“Under my task force, we have highly-trained detectives from throughout our circuit — Highlands County, Hardee County, Polk County — the many agencies, and they’re going to review everything that happened, get all the details and present a report to me for my review at the conclusion. The goal of this is to give the public a very transparent, thorough investigation so everyone knows what happened and how it happened.”

No other deputies were injured, Judd said.

Lt. Anderson is a former SWAT member who has been with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for almost 26 years, the sheriff described, adding Deputy Smith has been with the sheriff’s office for almost 12 years.

Watch the news conference in the video player below:

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