Hillsborough deputy relied on her training
By Shelley Rossetter and Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writers
TAMPA — Moments before Hillsborough Deputy Lyonelle De Veaux was shot Friday night, she made a split-second move that may have saved her life.
As bullets headed toward her, De Veaux turned her body, crouched and backed up. She received shots to her upper leg, lower leg and shoulder, deputies said.
She is expected to make a full recovery.
But it could have been much worse, said Larry McKinnon, a spokesman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
“She did what she was trained to do,” he said. “Practicing and rehearsing different scenarios helps, because then, when something happens, you don’t think, you just react.”
That’s important for officers who must always be on guard.
In 2009, law enforcement agencies reported that 57,268 officers nationwide were assaulted while performing their duties, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. About 26 percent of them were injured.
Sometimes, those assaults turn deadly.
During the past three years, six officers in Tampa Bay have been shot and killed in the line of duty.
And it’s not just happening here.
There has been a wave of police killings across the nation this year, said Roy Bedard, a police consultant in Tallahassee. And thus far, Florida is at the lead of that trend, he said.
Every year, Bedard said, law enforcement officers across the country make millions of contacts with the public.
Most times, they’re dealing with calls many in the public perceive as routine, such as traffic stops and domestic violence situations, like the one De Veaux responded to.
“We know better,” Bedard said. “Those are one of the most dangerous things we can do. … Domestic violence (calls) are very, very tricky, because you have emotion involved.”
Vehicle stops and domestic violence calls are the situations where the most officers are lost, he said, mainly because there are so many of them.
Bedard said officers can do all the tactical training in the world, but it’s always the spontaneous situations — like the one involving De Veaux — that are the most dangerous.
“It is a very, very difficult job,” Bedard said. “It always has been. It continues to be.”
Shelley Rossetter can be reached at srossetter@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2442. Kameel Stanley can be reached at kstanley@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8643.