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Deputy makes split-second decision under fire
Josh Cascio reports
TAMPA, Fla. - On Wednesday, Deputy Adriel Gonzalez was awarded the Silver Cross after being shot while responding to a domestic dispute on September 24. Gonzalez and his partner were trying to speak with a man who reportedly struck his mother. While talking to the man through a locked bedroom door, he shot Deputy Gonzalez in the right arm.
"Something of that magnitude that happens so fast your mind doesn’t process it right away. So I think it took me a minute or two," Gonzalez said. "You can show up to what you may believe is one thing and in then in a matter of minutes there's a complete 180," he added.
Gonzalez’s story is similar to Tuesday's deadly deputy-involved shooting in Riverview. What appeared to start as a medical-type call, ended with a deputy being forced to shoot an 88-year-old armed man, according to the sheriff.
It's the unknown that law enforcement deal with day in and day out.
"It doesn’t matter what the call notes state or what a complainant is calling in, you just never know what you’re showing up to," said Gonzalez.
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Gonzalez has fully recovered from the shooting and is back on the job.
FDLE is investigating Tuesday’s shooting, which is standard.
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