

#FLORIDA DEPUTIES AMBUSHED LICENSE#
He also had a firearm license and had applied for a second one, which was “subject to review” as of Sunday.Īt a news conference on Sunday morning, before he publicly identified Mr. His security officer license was set to expire in November, according to a database published by the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services. A company representative could not be reached on Sunday night.įlorida security officers must have a license for the job. Riley used to work at ESS Global Corporation, a security company. But no woman by the name that he gave lived there, the sheriff said.Īccording to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Riley told people in the neighborhood that God had sent him to save a woman before she took her own life. When he arrived in Polk County on Saturday night, the authorities said, Mr. Riley claimed to have received instructions from God to help the survivors of Hurricane Ida, and that he bought $1,000 worth of cigars to give to them, the sheriff said. Riley’s girlfriend told the authorities that he had worked in security at a church in Orlando and began having delusions, the sheriff said. “So we’re not dealing with a traditional criminal here,” Sheriff Judd said. Riley had been honorably discharged, he said, and had “virtually no criminal history.” Riley had also deployed to Iraq during his four years in the Marines and three years as a reservist, the sheriff said. In addition to serving in Afghanistan, Mr.

Riley’s girlfriend was cooperating with investigators and that she had told them that he had become more erratic in the past week. “Our community and many families are hurting this morning.” “This is a horrific incident,” Brian Haas, the state attorney for Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit, said at the news conference. He did not say whether investigators found any. “Who in the world would ever expect to have an active shooter in a neighborhood at 4:30 on a Sunday morning?” he said.īefore investigators could enter the home, he said, robots were sent in to check for explosives or other booby traps. When he entered the house from the back, the gunman started shooting, and the lieutenant returned fire, Sheriff Judd said, adding that three other deputies were “pinned down” during a standoff. The sheriff’s lieutenant tried to enter the house through the front door but it was barricaded, the sheriff said. The man retreated inside the home, and the sheriff said that officers could hear a woman scream and a baby whimper after more gunfire. “We saw an individual totally outfitted in body armor and looked as if he was ready to engage us all in an active shooter situation,” Sheriff Judd said. They also found a path of glow sticks from the road up to the residence. When law enforcement officers arrived at the property, which has three homes, they found a truck on fire. She told them of a frightening encounter with the man, who she said had told her that “God sent me here to speak with one of your daughters.”īy the time a sheriff’s deputy arrived about six minutes later, the man was gone, Sheriff Judd said.Ībout nine hours later, a sheriff’s lieutenant who was on another call two miles away heard two volleys of automatic gunfire, the sheriff said. “He says at one point to our detectives, ‘They begged for their lives, and I killed them anyway,’” Sheriff Judd said on Sunday afternoon. Riley, who works in “executive protection as a body guard and to provide security,” the sheriff said. There was no known connection between the victims and Mr. Riley was experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and was wearing body armor and camouflage when he barricaded himself inside one of the homes. Sheriff Judd said at a news conference that Mr. He will have a court appearance on Monday morning, the sheriff’s office said. He was also charged with one count of arson and two counts of armed burglary with assault and shooting into a building. Riley was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder of law enforcement officers and a separate count of attempted murder, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s office. No law enforcement officers were injured. He was taken into custody by officers from several law enforcement agencies in tactical gear as a helicopter hovered above the scene.

Riley, 33, of Brandon, Fla., which is east of Tampa and more than 20 miles from where the attack occurred.
