2 Florida deputies killed by gunman while eating at a restaurant

[Madmick]

2 Florida deputies killed by gunman while eating at a restaurant

Two deputies were killed Thursday when a man walked up to them in a Florida restaurant while they were eating and opened fire, a Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

Sgt. Noel Ramirez and Deputy Taylor Lindsey were eating at the Ace China restaurant in Trenton, a small town about 30 miles west of Gainesville.

Sgt. Noel Ramirez

The sheriff's office initially said the gunman shot the deputies through a window from outside the restaurant, but spokesman Scott Tummond clarified that account Friday, saying the gunman was actually inside when he opened fire.

Deputy Taylor Lindsey

"Both our heroes had simply sat down to eat while on duty," Gilchrist County Sheriff Bobby Schultz said Thursday night. "There was no crime in progress, no disturbance."

The deputies were in uniform and armed when they were shot, Tummond said, but they did not return fire.
The shooter, who was identified as John Hubert Highnote, 59, "shot both men without warning." He was found dead outside the business, the sheriff's office said.

"Two holes in the window are visible tonight," Schultz said.


The fallen officers
Schultz described the two deputies as men of integrity and loyalty.

"They were the best of the best," he said, adding later that "I can tell you that I loved them."

Ramirez, 30, had been a law enforcement officer for about seven years. He served at two law enforcement agencies before joining the Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office in 2016.

He is survived by his wife and two young children, officials said.

Lindsey was 25 and had been with the Gilchrist Sheriff's Office for more than three years.

Schultz told reporters Thursday he wanted to focus on telling the stories of the deputies while investigators began their work looking into the shooting.

He said Ramirez had an infectious smile and Lindsey loved to stop the flow of illegal drugs.

"At this point, it remains an active criminal investigation with no apparent motive or indications as to why this tragedy occurred," the department said on Facebook.

Schultz said there was much he wanted to say, and much he shouldn't.

"But I will say this. We're not going to make this ... a political issue. Other than the fact, what do you expect happens when you demonize law enforcement to the extent that it's been demonized? Every type of hate, every type of putdown that you can think of.

"The only thing these men were guilty of was wanting to protect you and me."

According to the department's website, there are 14 full-time deputies in the patrol division.
"My thoughts, prayers and condolences are with the families, friends and colleagues of the two @GCSOFlorida deputies (HEROES) who lost their lives in the line of duty today," President Donald Trump tweeted.



Gov. Rick Scott asked Floridians to honor the fallen deputies and other law enforcement officers.
View image on Twitter


"May God bless those who work to keep our communities safe," he tweeted.

CNN's Joe Sutton, Nicole Chavez, Tina Burnside and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

More below about the incident and the shooter:
John Hubert Highnote: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

The suspect was dead at the scene. “It appears he just walked up and shot them, then went to his car and shot himself. It’s inexplicable … people will want to know why and we may never have an answer for them,” Bill Cervone, a state attorney, told The Gainesville Sun. The sheriff’s spokesman told Heavy that, no matter the shooter’s motive, there’s zero rationale for murdering two deputies. In that way, the reason doesn’t hold much relevance.

No word on the race of the shooter, and I assume from his name that he's white, but I'd like to see figures on the number and rates of ambush-style executions like this of police officers before and after the rise of #BLM.
*Edit Correction*
He is white. Affirmed in the second article below a Tweet:

The John Highnote who murdered the two deputies was described in previous court records as a white male who stood 5’8″ and weighed 126 pounds. He was also described in court records as slender and balding, with a beard and working as a mechanic for a brake and clutch store.

This transcends racial barriers.

Seems to me that we've sent a clear message to all the violent degenerates out there that the cops are the real bad guys, and that there is some measure of righteousness or vindication in expressing their rage through a final act that targets the good people who kept them in check during their ignominious lives.

Violent crime continues to decline, and cop fatalities used to mirror that, declining in concert, but not anymore-- the former continues on the downtick while the latter continues on the uptick:
Ambush-style killings of police up 167% this year
That's 2016 after we'd already seen 3 prominent years of protest. I'd estimate that the uptick began in 2014 with this direct #BLM revenge execution (of an Asian and Latino cop) which shocked the nation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_killings_of_NYPD_officers

Here's 2017:
Police Fatalities On The Rise

Law enforcement maintains a record of the manner in which every LEO has died, so building a chart is merely a matter of drudgery.

It's time we stopped demonizing the cops as "racists".

 

[GOATER]

The MAFIA has evolved?

 

[AnGrYcRoW]

Trying to tie this to blm is a real stretch

 

[dfoster]

white male who stood 5’8″ and weighed 126 pounds.

little guys often have a big chip on their shoulders

 

[Jesus H. Sherdog]

Thanks @Madmick i was very sorry to hear about this. A tragedy just like every unnecessary murder in this country or any other. 17 patrol deputies is a really tiny department so it goes to show this kind of stuff occurs everywhere not just big cities. Really unfortunate

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Seems to me that we've sent a clear message to all the violent degenerates out there that the cops are the real bad guys,

They're totally upstanding and trustworthy. Any interaction on the street with them clearly demonstrates this. Too much propaganda.

 

[Greoric]

This is unfortunately apart of the feed-forward loop we find ourselves in with a police state. Ethically, these people feel righteous targeting random cops just because they wear the uniform. If nothing else, and just looking at it as clinically as possible; it's poor strategy. The only effect these killings are going to have is upping the security posture of police when they're out in uniform.... which inevitably furthers the divide between the state's enforcement class and the community, and thus further development of a police state... the precise opposite end of what they're looking to achieve.

 

[Ruprecht]

His priors were from '93 for stalking/harassing a woman when he lived in another town? That'd be a long time to nurse a grudge against police in general.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

This is unfortunately apart of the feed-forward loop we find ourselves in with a police state. Ethically, these people feel righteous targeting random cops just because they wear the uniform. If nothing else, and just looking at it as clinically as possible; it's poor strategy. The only effect these killings are going to have is upping the security posture of police when they're out in uniform.... which inevitably furthers the divide between the state's enforcement class and the community, and thus further development of a police state... the precise opposite end of what they're looking to achieve.

Maybe. Or it furthers the momentum of deescalation strategies.

 

[Greoric]

Maybe. Or it furthers the momentum of deescalation strategies.

Given the precedent for how states have reacted historically both domestically and abroad, that's not likely. Not to be a negative Nancy, but this is going to get much worse before it gets better.

 

[Trotsky]

So, there are 1,100,000 police officers in the country.

115 officers are killed in the line of duty per year - (0.0001%)(10 per 100,000)
50 are caused by gun fire per year - (0.00001%)(<5 per 100,000)

The murder rate in the US for the entire country is 7.6 per 100,000.


Sorry, I just don't see much of an epidemic here.

 

[Jesus H. Sherdog]

His priors were from '93 for stalking/harassing a woman? That'd be a long time to nurse a grudge against police in general.

Watch this thread you’ll see plenty of people, maybe never having been arrested, with some kind of grudge against an entire profession of people in general.

 

[Madmick]

This is unfortunately apart of the feed-forward loop we find ourselves in with a police state. Ethically, these people feel righteous targeting random cops just because they wear the uniform. If nothing else, and just looking at it as clinically as possible; it's poor strategy. The only effect these killings are going to have is upping the security posture of police when they're out in uniform.... which inevitably furthers the divide between the state's enforcement class and the community, and thus further development of a police state... the precise opposite end of what they're looking to achieve.

This is my concern, and anyone who knows your history of posting understands that you're no white knight for the police.

Trying to tie this to blm is a real stretch

Not really. I'm not trying to tie this specific incident to #BLM. I'm concerned that I'm seeing a divergent trajectory between violent crime and violent crime against police. It's not about this guy, but the phenomenon of ambush-style killings itself.

These aren't new, so my argument can only sensibly be rooted in numbers, and not anecdote; ironically, focusing on anecdotes that explicitly supported this (such as the Dallas shooter or the 2014 incident I cited) doesn't do much by itself to buttress the narrative of a larger groundswell of violent anti-sentiment directed towards cops.

I'm seizing on this incident because of the immediate, apparent lack of motive. Don't read more into than that.

His priors were from '93 for stalking/harassing a woman when he lived in another town? That'd be a long time to nurse a grudge against police in general.

Exactly, but just as liberals will point to political milieus such as the one Bannon and Trump championed during the campaign, and don't hesitate to tie in wider hate-based violence to that rhetoric, neither will I shy from tying his particular grudge. It adheres to the logic that there is always a social element with these feelings that exists, but rhetoric and political narratives that consume the media may exacerbate and compel more of these people to act by virtue of rationalizing their warped mental tendencies.

 

[Madmick]

So, there are 1,100,000 police officers in the country.

115 officers are killed in the line of duty per year - (0.0001%)(10 per 100,000)
50 are caused by gun fire per year - (0.00001%)(<5 per 100,000)

The murder rate in the US for the entire country is 7.6 per 100,000.


Sorry, I just don't see much of an epidemic here.

Good job.

Now do this with unarmed black men who get shot by the police.

Then realize you just Trumped your own system of belief.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

This is unfortunately apart of the feed-forward loop we find ourselves in with a police state. Ethically, these people feel righteous targeting random cops just because they wear the uniform. If nothing else, and just looking at it as clinically as possible; it's poor strategy. The only effect these killings are going to have is upping the security posture of police when they're out in uniform.... which inevitably furthers the divide between the state's enforcement class and the community, and thus further development of a police state... the precise opposite end of what they're looking to achieve.

Only if shooter has been wronged by police state in the past can this statement have any validity. If the shooter just a random nut job, then . . . It does not even prove a police state exists.

 

[Trotsky]

Good job.

Now do this with unarmed black men who get shot by the police.

Then realize you just Trumped your own system of belief.

Huh?

So we should compare the safety of unarmed civilians against the safety of police officers who confront crime for a living?

Yeah, I think "Trumped" was the correct word if meant to imply a ludicrous deflection that you think is a slam dunk, but is really a major derp.

 

[Jesus H. Sherdog]

So, there are 1,100,000 police officers in the country.

115 officers are killed in the line of duty per year - (0.0001%)(10 per 100,000)
50 are caused by gun fire per year - (0.00001%)(<5 per 100,000)

The murder rate in the US for the entire country is 7.6 per 100,000.


Sorry, I just don't see much of an epidemic here.

There are 37,144,530 non Hispanic blacks in the US. 49 unarmed blacks were killed by police last year.

Sure, neither is an epidemic.

Neither is a desirable situation either. Both are problems.

 

[Greoric]

Only if shooter has been wronged by police state in the past can this statement have any validity. If the shooter just a random nut job, then . . . It does not even prove a police state exists.

You don't have to be personally wronged by police to observe that you're in a police state, friend.

 

[Trotsky]

There are 37,144,530 non Hispanic blacks in the US. 49 unarmed blacks were killed by police last year.

Sure, neither is an epidemic.

Neither is a desirable situation either. Both are problems.

Yeah, I'm not sure why killing of unarmed blacks is a comparable stat, since I never implied it and the story is about the copes being killed by a white dude.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Given the precedent for how states have reacted historically both domestically and abroad, that's not likely. Not to be a negative Nancy, but this is going to get much worse before it gets better.

Based on articles I read in the midst of the height of the BLM stuff, consider me more optimistic than you.