{"id":41564,"date":"2024-02-01T11:13:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T16:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=41564"},"modified":"2024-02-01T13:53:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T18:53:03","slug":"highlands-county-sheriffs-deputy-takes-own-life-outside-agency-headquarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/02\/01\/highlands-county-sheriffs-deputy-takes-own-life-outside-agency-headquarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlands County sheriff’s deputy takes own life outside agency headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A sheriff’s deputy in central Florida took his own life outside the agency’s headquarters, officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paul Robitaille, 56, worked for the Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office, officials said in a news release. He worked as a detention deputy in the county courthouse in Sebring and had been with the agency since March 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Paul was a great employee with a great attitude. We are all shocked and heartbroken over this and I ask that everyone keep his family, friends, and our agency family in their prayers,\u201d Sheriff Paul Blackman said in the release.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Robitaille asked his supervisor for a break around 10 a.m. Wednesday, investigators said. He spoke briefly with another deputy outside the courthouse and then was found dead a short distance away, having shot himself with his service weapon, investigators said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robitaille gave no previous indication of anything wrong, Blackman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you or anyone you know is suffering with a mental crisis or having thoughts of self-harm, I beg you to please ask for help. You do not have to go through this alone. There are people who want to help,” the sheriff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robitaille leaves behind a wife and three children, one of whom is a part-time sheriff’s deputy with Highlands County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sebring is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Tampa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are struggling with your mental health, there is help available. Please reach out to the Suicide and Crisis line for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988 or through chatting at 988Lifeline.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sheriff’s deputy in central Florida took his own life outside the agency’s headquarters, officials said Wednesday. Paul Robitaille, 56, worked for the Highlands County Sheriff\u2019s Office, officials said in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[7434],"class_list":["post-41564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-highlands-county-sheriffs-deputy-takes-own-life-outside-agency-headquarters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}