A bizarre series of events ended in the fatal police shooting of a Florida man who attacked deputies despite being tazed and recently attacked by an alligator.
Deputies first received a call about a man, later identified as Tim Schulz, behaving erratically at 5:56 am on Sunday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd stated. Unable to locate him, they received another call at 7:43 am, reporting a man in the lake "with a lot of alligators." After being offered a life preserver, Schulz allegedly "growled."
The 42-year-old man, suspected of being high on meth, emerged from the lake with visible alligator bites then somehow obtained a set of garden shears, police say. Approaching deputies observed Schulz attempting to break into a car with a brick. When they confronted him, he used the shears in an attempted attack on the deputies.
Undeterred by repeated tasings, Schulz climbed into an officer's vehicle attempting to steal a gun, Judd said. At that point, officers opened fire.
"I heard the gunshots and jumped out of bed," a local resident told WSVN. "When I opened the garage door, I saw the two deputies pulling the suspect from the car and onto the pavement."
"The fact he was bitten by an alligator, significantly, and still continued his rampage is shocking," Sheriff Judd said.
Schulz was previously incarcerated for methamphetamine-related charges, released just last week on May 20.
No deputies were injured during the incident. The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave pending a standard investigation.
