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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nJudd says deputies got a call from the RaceTrac off SR 37 shortly before 6 a.m. Monday, with the caller telling dispatchers that a man was acting “bizarre” and “asking to call his son.” Deputies searched for him, but he had left the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly two hours later, at 7:43 a.m., according to Judd, another caller said a man was swimming in a lake that’s known to have a lot of gators. A witness told PCSO that they tried to give the man a life preserver, but he wouldn’t take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judd says that when deputies arrived, the man \u2013 later identified as Timothy Schulz, 42 \u2013 had gotten out of the water and grabbed a pair of garden shears, then used a brick to try and break into a vehicle in the area in the area of West Lake Clark Court near Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schulz charged at the deputies while carrying the shears, according to Judd, at which point he was tased twice. Judd says Schulz then climbed into the passenger side of a running patrol vehicle and tried to grab a gun from its holder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s when Judd says deputies opened fire multiple times, killing Schulz.: Polk County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No deputies were injured, according to Judd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What they’re saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a news conference on Monday, Judd said it appeared that Schulz’s right arm had been bitten by a gator while he was in the lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“His conduct was outrageous. It was bizarre,” Judd said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judd added that Schulz has a long criminal history consisting of many arrests for meth, and he had just gotten out of jail on May 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This is crazy stuff. You know it’s got to be true. You can’t make it up,” Judd said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sheriff Grady Judd says Polk County deputies shot and killed an armed man who was attacked by an alligator while swimming across a lake, then charged at the deputies with a pair of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"23","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDVcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtODktMTIud2VicD9maXQ9NTc5JTJDMzQ1JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRGVwdXRpZXMgc2hvb3QgYW5kIGtpbGwgJiM4MjE2O2JpemFycmUmIzgyMTc7IGFybWVkIG1hbiBtaW51dGVzIGFmdGVyIGFwcGFyZW50IGdhdG9yIGF0dGFjayBpbiBsYWtlIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.22VDAQ-8HyO4D3k4MT4cbugNmISamZ9PyBXmIh-QnXgMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":55908,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-89-12.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[11557],"class_list":["post-55907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sheriffs-corner","tag-deputies-shoot-and-kill-bizarre-armed-man-minutes-after-apparent-gator-attack-in-lake"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55907","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=55907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55909,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55907\/revisions\/55909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}