LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — A deputy who was injured during a shooting that happened in April of 2024 returned to work Thursday.
On the night of April 27, 2024, Lieutenant Chad Anderson, along with another Polk County Deputy Sheriff, Craig Smith, responded to a trespassing call in North Lakeland during which they were both shot multiple times.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect, identified as Kmac El Bey, refused to cooperate with deputies after they found him in a car at Hunt Fountain Park after hours. The car soon began rolling, and both deputies grabbed the windows.
The sheriff’s office reported that El Bey then fired five shots, striking Smith in the arm twice and Anderson near his heart.
Deputy Smith was able to return to work in October of 2024, but Anderson was still in recovery until this week.
Video captured Thursday’s warm welcome as Lt. Anderson returned to work for light duty for the first time in over a year. Fellow members of the Northwest District, as well as Deputy Smith, lined up to shake his hand and applaud him.
“We stand in the gap between good and evil, and that night your team stood in the gap between good and evil,” Sheriff Grady Judd said. “And as a result of that, no one else was hurt. He was a madman, he was absolutely a madman, and had we not done what we did, at some point in time, he would have absolutely hurt someone else.”
“It’s a blessing, and there’s a reason why when I go to bed at night I pray for all the deputies, and when I wake up in the morning I pray for all the deputies because we’re out there dealing with the unknown,” Judd said. “But I know this – crime’s at a 53-year low, there’s a lot of bad guys in jail, and you’re back at work and healthy, and your partner’s back at work and healthy, and no one else was shot that night except for the bad guy, and we shot him a lot.”
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