FROSTPROOF, Fla. – Polk County deputies trying to handcuff a man Friday night in Frostproof shot and killed the man’s brother, who allegedly hit one of them on the head with a two-by-four, according to Sheriff Grady Judd.
The deputies had been dispatched around 9:30 p.m. to W. Frostproof Baptist Church Road to serve a warrant for failure to pay child support, locating the intended subject — Primitivo Garcia, 43 — in what Judd described as “a really junky area about 75 yards off of the road.”
Speaking at a news conference early Saturday, Judd said that Garcia began to fight with the deputies as they tried to take him into custody.
”He got one handcuff on him, and while they were wrestling with him and fighting with him in order to secure him in handcuffs, out of nowhere, a second suspect shows up with a long two-by-four and hits one of my deputies in the head, Deputy Martin," Judd said. “He struck him in the head so hard that he split his head open.”
Deputy Sheriff Draven Martin and Sgt. Dicson Collazo shot the second suspect — identified as Francisco Garcia-Vega, 53, Primitivo Garcia’s brother — “as he was preparing to then strike them some more with this two-by-four,” the sheriff said.
“While this was occurring, our original suspect fled. Our deputies were able to run him down — he had one handcuff — and after a foot pursuit, they both tased him, took him into custody, secured him in one of the patrol cars, and then went back to give first aid to the person they had shot," Judd said.
Garcia-Vega was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the sheriff.
In an update put out after noon Saturday, the sheriff’s office said that Garcia would be charged with second-degree murder in his brother’s death. Garcia will otherwise face charges of resisting arrest with violence, resisting arrest without violence, “escape,” and petit theft in connection to the case, the sheriff’s office said.
Judd said that Deputy Martin was being treated at Lakeland Regional Medical Center at the time of the news conference, around 12:20 a.m.
Saturday’s update states Martin was released from the hospital after getting 11 staples.
The incident will be investigated by the 10th Judicial Circuit’s Officer-Involved Deadly Incident Task Force before those results — as well as those of an administrative investigation and an investigation by the medical examiner — are turned over to State Attorney Brian Haas for final review, the sheriff said.