2 Polk County deputies shot, 'sovereign citizen' suspect killed in North Lakeland shootout

Two Polk County sheriff's deputies were shot by a "sovereign citizen" at an athletic complex in North Lakeland early Saturday morning before other deputies returned fire and killed the man, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

In an early morning briefing on Facebook, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the incident happened shortly before 12:30 a.m. at the Hunt Fountain Complex at Duff and Green roads. The park closes at 10 p.m., and the Sheriff's Office had extra patrols in the area because of a recent rash of car burglaries.

A deputy patrolling the area noticed a white car parked at the site and approached the driver.

"There was a male in the car and he rolled the window down a small amount, and she was trying to talk to him and ask him why he was in the park, and he wouldn't cooperate," Judd said. "She asked him to get out of the car, and he wouldn't get out of the car."

Judd said the deputy went back to her vehicle and asked for backup.

"The first deputy, when she met resistance, she only had a trainee with her, and you don't want to get into a conflict situation if you can avoid it by yourself," Judd said. "She called for assistance. Other deputies responded, supervision responded in an effort to resolve the event peacefully.

There were a total of four deputies and two trainees, and they attempted to take the man out of the vehicle.

"When we started trying to take him out of the vehicle, the vehicle started moving, he was leaving. And that's when the shots rang out. That's when our folks were immediately shot down," Judd said.

"Craig Smith and Chad Anderson were standing at the door close together, and they were immediately shot and went down," he said. "We know that Chad Anderson got off some rounds. We don't believe that Deputy Smith did because he was shot all through the right arm. He had four gunshot wounds in his right arm.

Judd said Lt. Chad Anderson, a 26-year veteran, was shot once in the arm and it traveled into his chest. He's in critical but stable condition. Deputy Craig Smith, a 12-year veteran, was shot four times in the right arm and is in stable condition in the intensive care unit.

"Our backup deputies shot a lot, and we don't know how much yet, we're in the initial stages of crime-scene investigations, and we can report that to you later," Judd said. "But we killed the suspect. We killed him grave-yard dead. And we killed him dead in a gunfight, a firefight, with our deputies who had no idea they were dealing with anyone other than someone being in the park after the park closed, being suspicious and resisting our efforts to identify why they were in the area."

The suspect had a Springfield 9-mm XD, the sheriff said.

Judd said the Sheriff's Office is not identifying the suspect yet because they're trying to reach next of kin. But he said the man appeared to be living out of his vehicle and that another law enforcement agency had an interaction with him at another park in another county about a month ago.

"He is a sovereign citizen identifying with the Moorish philosophy, which simply means they resist government, they don't believe in government, they don't think the laws apply to them and they can do what they want when they want. And that's what we see here tonight.

"They're known to be violent and shoot police officers."

The sheriff said his deputies have arrested sovereign citizens before, but doesn't publicize it "because we don't want to market for them."

"There are a lot of Moorish sovereign citizens that aren't violent. They're peaceful in a sense, but they file lawsuits and papers against government officials, but being physically violent they're not. But there's a percentage of them, and we ran into one last night that was very violent."

He said the man was not a suspect in the burglaries and had no outstanding warrants. "The most that would have happened to him was a citation for being in a park after hours," Judd said.

"He chose that outcome, and we obliged him," Judd said.

The Sheriff's Office said more information would be released later in the day.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Suspect shoots 2 Polk deputies in North Lakeland, dies in shootout