Two Deputies Run Over Accident Victim

The Orlando Sentinel reported that Hillsborough sheriff’s deputies hit an allegedly already-dead pedestrian in an incident that is now being investigated by the Florida Highway Patrol.

While en route to a call about a pedestrian being struck by a car, two Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies struck a man, but according to Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, the man was already dead. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office issued a press release stating that a man had walked into the middle of an unlit, six-lane portion of Hillsborough Avenue early Sunday morning and a woman driving down the roadway struck him. The release states that two deputies responded to the crash around 4 a.m., that the 27-year-old Orlando man both deputies managed to run over was the same person who was lying in the road from the first impact, and alleges that he had been deceased before they arrived.

The driver of the SUV that initially allegedly hit the person was a 41-year-old Summerfield woman.

In the aftermath, the Florida Highway Patrol has taken over the investigation. Both deputies began serving with the HCSO in 2019 and neither have any previous history of problems in their careers as Sheriff’s deputies, according to the HCSO’s press release.