Deputy Larence

May you make a full recovery from your incident.

Thank God you were wearing a vest!!!!!

For those of you who do not know, read the Ledger or TBO.com.. TBO has the full story.

keeping you in my thoughts, larence. you are one hell of a deputy. one of the best ive ever been around. alot of deputies could learn alot of things from you. just a great guy all around.

glad the suspect's gone and not around to try and harm another deputy.

[Retired n Luvin it]

God Bless you man !! My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family as you recover!

I did 32 years at Sarasota SO and have been involved in officer involved shootings, both as a participant and an investigator. It is a roller coaster of emotions, no matter how righteous the shooting is found to be.

Talk with some of your brother LEO's who have been involved in shootings. Vent with them, listen to how they handled their experience.

But in the end the best advice that I have heard is this~ I was a young tadpole deputy when I met up with a seasoned veteran who had just shot and killed an armed suspect the night before. I told him I was thinking of him, and asked if he was alright. He said he was fine, then spoke these words which have stayed with me all these years~ " I shot him and killed him~ and I'll do it again if that's what it takes to make sure I go home to my family at the end of my shift . "

God Bless you and know that your brother deputies at PCSO support you, and that all cops who read this board are thinking of you now. Thank you Grady Judd for your leadership and support for this fine deputy !

First off let me say I'm thankful he is recovering well. The last thing any of us wanted was to attend another funeral. For the benefit of the newer deputies. Lets take a look at this without any spin and do the lessons learned (which should be done on every OIS event that happens here, but that's another story)
1) Always wear you vest -possibly saved his life in this case
2) Armed people have the ability to kill or injure you no matter if they are handicapped, mentally ill, a woman, a child, or a 240lb escaped convict- treat them accordingly
3) Choose your tool wisely, use it or transition to another -don’t try to operate a taser and pistol at the same time
4) Tasers don’t always work- don’t use them on armed suspects unless you have lethal cover
5) Don’t close the gap unless it’s to your advantage
6) No matter how many years you have been doing this job and it has worked out for you, never confuse good luck with good tactics.

We are all thankful Rick is recovering. I appreciate the above post, most people want to play backseat quarterback and say "he should have done this, why didn't he do that"?? I would NEVER question what someone does in a situation like that. No one else was there but him and the suspect and no one can say they would have done this vs. that, and if you do you are either a liar or Superman. I am just glad that he is still here with us, we will miss him while he is in recovery but will be praying for him.. Don't judge till you are in someone else's shoes, do the best you can, learn from yours and others mistakes, and be thankful for every night (or day) you come home from work safely, as well as our fellow LEO's everywhere... Good luck on surgery tomorrow Rick, you know where to find us if you need anything bud :) .............

My question is why didhe go to an armed conflict without back up officers? Where or how far was his bu guys?
I'm retired from a central fl agency and we never went to an armed conflict without back up if it was a 911 call different if you drove up on it.

because he had to. it is his job. dont bash him the so doesnt always have quick back up.

with polk co. your back up can be 3mins to 30mins away or more we work very thin alot of times

(S35)??? A suspect is 10-8 armed w/ a knife having 22 w/ his father. Father is trying to chase him out of the home. Phone is disconnected. We don't chose the calls we respond to or how much 10-43 we get. Some calls you can wait. Time is on you'r side. Is this one???
Real Time. You'r 1097, what's suspect doing? Is he still 10-8? Is their anyone else in the home? Adults? KIDS????? I can only answer for me. If nobody gets hurt, Mannnnn, that was a good call. If someone got hurt or worse yet killed while I waited. I would have to live with that.

I am just happy that Rick kept thinking, did not shut down and got this guy OFF HIM. Get Well.

Speedy recovery Rick...good job!

I too want to first say that I am glad Rick survived the fight and hope he has a full recovery. I fully agree with "Guest" who posted those 6 points above. I know we as deputies can't pick and choose the calls we respond to and oftentimes, backup units aren't always available. I don't think that is the point though....so back to the nuts and bolts. If you all remember right, last year's ALERT scenario was pretty much geared toward the same type of call RL responded to....crazy guy armed, remember? When you got "10-97" you found a man holding a red "knife" and a "victim" lying across the room. Remember how you responded to that? Some of the deputies responded with lethal force when the suspect refused to comply and/or started to "close the gap" on the victim. For those, the scenario had a happy ending (if it were a real call, you would have been unharmed AND you would have been able to help the victim). For those deputies who chose to respond with a Taser and gun still holstered, the scenario didn't turn out so well, remember?

Remember, in order for the Taser to be used, you obviously have to be within 21ft of the suspect (probe leads 21ft long)....which is also the same distance as the "reactionary gap" we are taught. But what about the action vs reaction time difference? I can assure you that most ANYONE hell-bent on attacking you with a knife can cover 21ft before you have time to 1) perceive the threat 2) cognitively or instinctively decide on a plan of action 3) react to the threat attempting to perform fine motor skills (working the safeties on your holster) and 4) following through with the action.

I know the neysayers will say, "Well, that isn't on-point because RL had both his Taser and sidearm drawn". To that, I would say....how often has any of us trained to deploy either weapon while holding the other in our other hand....that would be ZERO. There is a reason why...its called "sympathetic reaction". Also, some other things to remember about the Taser, when you press the trigger, there is a small delay before the cartridge actually fires AND in a situation such as the one RL was in, the Taser is a "one shot" solution. If you miss the suspect or the suspect doesn't react to the shock, where does that leave you?...trying to drive-stun a suspect as they are stabbing you? That doesn't sound like good odds to me. I know some of you out there (the deputies in ALERT who got filleted) know all too well what I'm saying!!!

Last point, transitioning from Taser to handgun. It's not that easy to do in a sterile environment, much less a hostile one....BUT, I would much rather de-escalate (go from handgun to Taser) than have to rely on fine motor skills to get the proper weapon in a hostile environment....have it out already!...be prepared for the worst, and the situation can only get better or stay the same.

Please don't think I'm bashing RL because I'm not....I'm simply analyzing and "debriefing" the incident which, like "Guest" above, was also doing. No disrespect to RL.....but when something happens, it is our duty to try to learn from the incident.

The old attage "never bring a knife to a gun fight" is true....but so is "bring a gun to a knife fight". Train hard...fight hard...win

Rick, I'm so glad your going to be ok. There's no one else like you. You make us laugh when you talk on the radio even if your not trying too. Aside from that your a great deputy and friend. We miss you, get well soon. :D

Get well chief! BTW, a certain platoon on thursday night had four d/s show up...plus one of thiers to cover ft meade... echo had to fill in the spaces...woo hooo grady run administration!

Howdy Fellas and of course all my sisters also! I just want everyone to know I'm leaving Lakekand Regional today and in great spirits. Finally took my first "man dump" since the incident last Friday and have shared the amazing results with all. I have really appreciated all the comforting telephone calls, visits, cards, etc and really feel blessed to be in the presence of such folks that take time out of their busy days to spend a moment with me. Believe me I feel like I been given a second chance at life and the entire incident of course has had a significant emotional impact. To all the posts whether they are considered for or against, I have read them and listened - even to the six pages of forum on the Lakeland Ledger. I won't go into alot of what if's etc or in the future, but be for sure the most important thing is not to put my wife and children through the trauma again. The little things are now just that so it may be alittle harder to get me fired up. I'm a survivor now which has cemented my basic instinct - fight to the death-and never give up! Again a big thank you to all whom read this post.

Hey man I heard the news and I thought about what a competent Deputy you always were. I also thought of the not give up attitude you always showed. I am so pleased that you are recovering well from your injuries. Life is one day at a time, which means there is always time for a round of golf on days off. lol.....[/list][/quote] 8)

God Bless you ! May you make a speedy recovery.

Polk County S.O Rocks !