POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A confrontation between a suspect and a Polk County deputy Friday night ended in the suspect’s death and left the deputy in the hospital, according to Sheriff Grady Judd.
Around 9:30 p.m., the suspect — identified as Henry Maynard, 19 — arrived to his grandmother’s house in the Oakwood Estates neighborhood off Spirit Lake Road near Winter Haven, where the sheriff said in a video statement that “there was some kind of disturbance” involving Maynard hitting his grandmother with a vehicle.
“The information we have now is he hit her with the vehicle, knocking her to the ground. She has been taken by ambulance to Lakeland Regional (Health), she was rushed there as an emergency case,” Judd said.
As a Polk County deputy was in the neighborhood looking for the victim’s address, as well as for Maynard, Judd said that the 19-year-old drove directly at the deputy and T-boned his vehicle while he was trying to turn around.
“As soon as he rammed our deputy’s vehicle extremely hard, he jumped out, there was a confrontation and the deputy shot the suspect, who is deceased at the scene,” Judd said.
The deputy was identified as Christian Quattlebaum, 26, who has been with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for four and a half years. Though an updated news release states Deputy Quattlebaum was treated for the injuries he suffered during the incident, it was not made clear whether he had been released from the hospital at the time of this report.
There was also nothing immediately said regarding whether Quattlebaum would remain at work with the sheriff’s office’s Central District Delta platoon while the shooting is investigated by the 10th Judicial Circuit’s Officer Involved Deadly Incident (OIDI) Task Force.
Judd held up a picture of Maynard’s face throughout a second video statement released Saturday afternoon, during which the sheriff recounted the alleged events leading up to and following the shooting in greater detail.
As Maynard slept at his grandmother’s home, Judd said that she brought him an Almond Joy and placed it on his computer once she saw that he wasn’t awake yet. Maynard “went into a rage” upon waking up to find that the chocolate had melted, Judd said, running nearly a mile to his parents’ house where he retrieved a bag and took a car before calling 911. The car was unregistered and Maynard himself had no driver’s license, the sheriff added.
“The grandmother called the parents and said, ‘He’s here in the car and he’s in a rage.’ The parents rushed over there. Now, in the meantime, he dials 911. He tells the operator he’s about to commit a crime and he needs to be able to escape,” Judd said.
With Maynard’s parents and Deputy Quattlebaum now at the scene, Judd said that Maynard accelerated the car and struck Quattlebaum’s vehicle. It was in the process of initially reversing the car that Maynard had knocked his grandmother over, leaving her with a broken arm; the grandmother’s injuries are non-life-threatening, the sheriff said.
“At that instance, a neighbor said that this man jumped out of his vehicle in an absolute rage, like a madman, ran to the driver-side door of the deputy’s vehicle and started yanking on it ‘til it came open and started climbing into the vehicle,” Judd said. “Our Deputy Quattlebaum is trying to get out of the passenger side of the car because he doesn’t know what this person’s doing. They just rammed his vehicle and is now trying to attack him. When our suspect Henry gets into the front seat with the deputy and is aggressively moving toward him, our deputy shoots.”
Though Maynard’s father initiated CPR to try and save his son’s life, the 19-year-old died at the scene, Judd said.
Maynard’s mother has been a Polk County detention deputy for 10 years and his father is a nurse who works with the county’s jail system, Judd said.
“We have huge emotions going on at the sheriff’s office today. Our Deputy Quattlebaum did exactly what he needed to do and should have done with somebody violently attacking him, to quote a witness, ‘Like a madman,’ and we’re so sorry for mom and dad and grandma,” Judd said.
Note: This map depicts the general area of this shooting and not necessarily its exact location.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: