MARION COUNTY, Fla. — Ocala Police Chief Greg Graham was killed in a small plane crash Sunday morning.
Marion County firefighters found him inside of a crashed plane in the Dunnellon area at around 11:30 a.m.
First responders in the county are still reeling from the loss of one of their own.
“We were then shocked and grief-stricken to learn that the pilot was my good friend and mentor Chief Greg Graham,” said Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods.
During a somber press conference, the county sheriff and deputy chief discussed how difficult it was to share the details of an investigation about the death of someone they were so close to that happened so close to home.
The Ocala Police Department, where Graham was chief, is just 20 miles from the open field where he died inside the crashed plane.
A motorcade of his uniformed family wound through Ocala on Sunday afternoon.
Deputies were on guard at the scene of the plane crash until Sunday evening.
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Woods said Federal Aviation Administration authorities will be onsite soon to investigate how and why Graham’s plane crashed.
Members of the law enforcement community around Central Florida are reacting to the tragic death of Graham.