Grady Judd: Suspect high on meth shot ‘graveyard dead’ after opening fire on SWAT team, 1 hostage rescued
FROSTPROOF, Fla. - Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says he can’t even count all the rounds that were fired at an armed suspect who shot a SWAT team member in Frostproof early Friday morning after holding a woman hostage and keeping law enforcement at bay during an hours-long standoff.
According to Sheriff Judd, on Thursday night, deputies with the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office tried to stop an orange Nissan on Highway 627 and 17A that had run a stop sign because they believed the driver was under the influence. When the vehicle didn’t stop, deputies began chasing it.
Since they were only pursuing the vehicle for traffic charges, the deputies said they were about to stop the chase as the suspect headed into Polk County when they received a 911 call from a woman who said she was being held in the car.
HCSO says the deputies continued the chase for 11 miles until they got to 17 A, or Scenic Highway, and T.S. Wilson Road. That’s when, according to Sheriff Judd the car got stuck in a ‘high rise’ and lost traction forcing the pursuit to come to an end.
According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Raymond Martinez, 37, was in the passenger seat. Judd says he believes the driver when the pursuit began is a partial victim. She said she was not allowed to stop the car and was forced to flee from law enforcement.
When Polk deputies arrived on the scene, they were led to believe there were three people in the vehicle – Martinez, the woman and a baby.
Judd says deputies began to negotiate with Martinez to get him to surrender peacefully. However, for the next two hours, he refused to comply with law enforcement and continued to smoke methamphetamine, according to Judd.
Eventually, Judd said Martinez wanted water and deputies said they would give him water if he let the woman and baby go.
Judd said Martinez said no, so deputies asked him what he would trade for the water. That’s when, according to Judd, he threw out a magazine full of ammunition and a handgun, which meant he still had one firearm inside the vehicle.
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According to Judd, Martinez kept telling the baby to be quiet and stay underneath a cover.
In the meantime, the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office was looking into who Martinez and the woman are and said they could account for all of his kids, meaning there was no baby in the car.
"He is high and low and high and low as he continues to smoke meth through the evening. He’s incredibly erratic and at one time he threatened suicide. He said he couldn’t let the baby go and he couldn’t let the woman go because if he did that then we would shoot him. We assured him that wasn’t the case and we wanted to peacefully take him into custody," Judd said.
Martinez accused the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office of being the Mexican cartel and said they were after him, according to Judd.
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The Polk County SWAT team arrived shortly afterward and convinced Martinez to let the woman out of the car long enough to take a bottle of water back to him. When she got out of the driver’s side of the vehicle, deputies grabbed her and brought her to safety, according to Judd.
At that time, deputies say they confirmed that there was no baby in the car and it was just part of a scheme to keep law enforcement at bay.
That’s when, according to Judd, Martinez jumped from the passenger’s side of the car to the driver’s side and floored it. The car’s wheels were spinning and throwing rocks everywhere but it didn't budge because it was stuck in the high center.
Since he was the only one inside the car, Judd said that’s when deputies introduced a chemical agent to the vehicle and he immediately began shooting at the SWAT team. They returned fire.
"He shot one of my deputies, one of my SWAT team members, Samuel Yates," Judd stated. "It turns out Samuel was shot in the shoulder, and he has significant glass in his face from a bullet traveling through the window of a patrol car."
Polk County Deputy Samuel Yates was hospitalized after being shot by an armed suspect. Image is courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
According to Judd, Yates was taken to Lakeland Regional Health in excellent condition. He was shot high in the shoulder and needs surgery to remove some of the glass in his face.
"As you can well imagine, when you start shooting at a SWAT team, it doesn’t end up well and we shot Raymond Martinez a lot," Sheriff Judd stated. "We killed him graveyard dead. We gave him exactly what he asked for after negotiating and trying to de-escalate him for hours. He was shot and killed in an orange grove in Polk County because he asked for it and we gave it to him. We are not going to allow him to shoot at anyone, certainly not our deputies, or Highlands County deputies without taking action."
Courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
"Make no mistake, we can’t even count all the rounds that we shot back at him, but he apparently got off several shots at the beginning, but when you have a gunfight with the SWAT team, you lose every time. That was his last bad decision of the night," Judd added.
According to Judd, Martinez has 16 previous felony arrests and 13 misdemeanor arrests. He also served time in state prison for violent crime, Judd said.
Judd says the hostage and Martinez were known to each other but did not give details on their relationship.
An investigation into the fatal shooting is underway by the Task Force Shooting team.