4 police officers are shot in Florida
Two are killed and two wounded in separate attacks 150 miles apart.
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — A Kissimmee police officer spent his Saturday afternoon scrubbing the blood of his fallen colleagues off the pavement of Palmway Street.
“I just don’t want to see this every time I drive by,” Sgt. Matt Koski said as he splashed soapy water onto the street.
The night before, Sgt. Richard “Sam” Howard and Officer Matthew Baxter were fatally shot during a routine traffic stop.
Police say Everett Glenn Miller, a 45-year-old Marine veteran, opened fire on the officers about 9:30 p.m. They didn’t have a chance to fire back.
“It looked like they were surprised,” said Kissimmee Police Chief Jeff O’Dell.
Howard died of his wounds Saturday. Baxter died Friday night, shortly after the shooting.
Two Jacksonville, Fla., police officers were also shot Friday night, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff ’s Office. Both survived.
In Kissimmee, Baxter was investigating three suspicious people about 9:30 p.m. when Howard came to help and a “scuffle” broke out, O’Dell said.
Investigators are still working to understand the details of what happened in the moments before the shooting, officials said.
Miller fled to a local bar, where Osceola County sheriff’s deputies found him about 11:30 p.m. When they approached him, Miller reached for his waistband — but a deputy tackled him and he was arrested, 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 9-millimeter and .22 revolver on his person.”
The Osceola County Sheriff ’s Office had recently taken Miller into custody under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows involuntary commitment of people in mental health crises. Miller, who had no criminal record in Florida, was enlisted in the Marines from 1989 to 2010, according to military records.
Miller had threatened law enforcement in social media postings, O’Dell said, “but we never got a call on that.” The chief encouraged the community to help in similar cases.
A Facebook page believed to be Miller’s is filled with posts expressing anger over racism, slavery and the Ku Klux Klan. In one post, he shared a meme encouraging people to “shoot back,” with a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. “You can poke a tie up dog for so long,” Miller wrote.
O’Dell said his officers would press forward with their duties while mourning their co-workers and friends. “We do not get to stop and cry for someone we’ve lost or mourn our hero,” he said. “At the time we go through it, the men and women of law enforcement are required to continue working and bring this individual to justice.”
Baxter, 27, was married to a fellow Kissimmee police officer and had four young children, O’Dell said. Howard, 36, had one child.
“They are both wonderful men, family men. They are both very committed to the community,” O’Dell said. “They were the epitome of what you ask for in law enforcement officers.”
The last Kissimmee officer killed on the job was shot in 1983. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence said on social media that their “thoughts and prayers” were with the Kissimmee police.