A tragic incident unfolded in Florida last Friday, when a dispute over a candy bar escalated into a fatal confrontation.
A 19-year-old man, identified as Henry Maynard, was shot dead by a Polk County deputy after he reportedly hit his grandmother with a vehicle. The altercation was sparked by a disagreement over an Almond Joy candy bar that his grandmother had left on his computer.
According to The Independent, Sheriff Grady Judd provided a detailed account of the incident in a video statement. Maynard had arrived at his grandmother's residence in Polk County around 9:30 pm local time. The elderly woman had placed an Almond Joy on his computer while he was asleep. Upon waking and discovering the melted chocolate, Maynard "went into a rage."
In a desperate attempt to escape the situation, Maynard ran nearly a mile to his parents' house, where he grabbed a bag and an unregistered car, despite not having a driving license. "He tells the operator hes about to commit a crime and he needs to be able to escape," Judd recounted Maynard's call to 911. His grandmother, alarmed by his behavior, contacted his parents, warning them that "hes here in the car and hes in a rage."
Maynard's parents, his mother a Polk County detention deputy for a decade and his father a nurse with the county's jail system, rushed to the scene. They were joined by Deputy Christian Quattlebaum, 26, near the Oakwood Estates in Winter Haven. In a shocking turn of events, Maynard reversed the car, knocking over his grandmother, and then accelerated forward, colliding with Quattlebaum's vehicle.
Judd narrated the subsequent events, as witnessed by a neighbor: "A neighbor said that this man jumped out of his vehicle in an absolute rage, like a madman, ran to the driver-side door of the deputys vehicle and started yanking on it til it came open and started climbing into the vehicle." Quattlebaum, who had been trying to exit his car, was forced to defend himself and shot Maynard.
Despite his father's attempts to perform CPR, Maynard succumbed to his injuries at the scene. His grandmother, left with a broken arm from the incident, was transported to the hospital by ambulance. Quattlebaum, a four-and-a-half-year veteran of the Polk County Sheriffs office, was treated for injuries sustained during the incident.
The fatal shooting is currently under investigation by the 10th Judicial Circuits Officer Involved Deadly Incident (OIDI) Task Force. This unfortunate incident underscores the potential volatility of domestic disputes and the challenges faced by law enforcement officers in managing such situations.
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