‘It’s horrific’: Lake County deputies mourn the death of one of their own

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Dozens of law enforcement vehicles followed in procession as the body of a fallen deputy was taken from Waterman Health Hospital to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Leesburg Saturday morning.

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Officers with multiple agencies - Leesburg PD, Mascote PD, Tavares PD, Eustis PD, Clermont PD, and Lake County Sheriff’s office - came together to honor their fellow deputy.

They prayed and comforted one another outside the ME’s office. “It’s horrific when you have one of your own stuck inside a home and you can’t get to them,” said Lake County Sheriff Payton Grinnell. “it’s going to be a long time until we get back to a sense of normal.”

Read: Deputy killed, 2 other deputies injured in shootout at Lake County home

The commotion comes hours after a deadly shootout in Eustis.

Two other sheriff’s deputies were hurt, one of them was still in critical condition as of Saturday morning, according to the sheriff’s office. “While they were conducting their investigation, they were alerted to a home a couple of houses down. The deputies went to that home and saw what appeared to be the backdoor kicked in and they could be the disturbance inside that home,” said Grinnell.

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Channel 9 spoke exclusively with the family who called 911 Friday night. “We were in my yard and some lady came up yelling and screaming at my dog,” said Abagail Wilbanks, who claims her neighbor attacked her and her dog. “She looked at me, and she was like ‘I know who you are and where you came from.’ And she smacked me in the face.”

That’s when Abagail says she called her family for help. “I got my dad, who lives next door, and I called him to come try and help calm her down,” said Wilbanks. “She kept hitting us, and he came and she attacked him. She ripped his hair out, and we couldn’t get her off of him.”

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Abigail says deputies went into her neighbor’s home – and that’s when shots were fired.

A total of three deputies were shot. Two other people were shot and killed inside the home.

A third person was taken to the hospital after the shooting, the sheriff said. So far, no identities have been released.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the last time a deputy died in the line of duty in Lake County was in 2005. The investigation remains underway.

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