{"id":64555,"date":"2026-04-08T02:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64555"},"modified":"2026-04-08T02:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:12:34","slug":"polk-county-sheriff-grady-judd-talks-after-deputy-shoots-armed-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/08\/polk-county-sheriff-grady-judd-talks-after-deputy-shoots-armed-veteran\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County\u00a0Sheriff\u00a0Grady Judd\u00a0talks after deputy shoots armed veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On Tuesday, April 7, 2026, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a press conference detailing a fatal deputy-involved shooting in Lakeland involving 76-year-old Ronald Breese<\/strong>, a Vietnam War veteran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary of the Incident<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Location:<\/strong> The shooting occurred on Socrum Loop Road West<\/strong> in Lakeland.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Suspect:<\/strong> Ronald Breese, a 76-year-old military veteran, was identified as the armed suspect. He was killed during the confrontation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Deputies:<\/strong> No deputies were injured during the exchange.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Circumstances:<\/strong> According to Sheriff Judd, deputies were responding to a situation where Breese was armed and presented a threat. While the full investigation is ongoing, Judd stated that the deputies “neutralized the threat” after Breese refused to comply and engaged with law enforcement while armed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Key Takeaways from the Press Conference<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Sheriff Judd expressed that while it is always tragic when a veteran is involved in such an escalation, his deputies had to respond to the immediate danger posed by the suspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)<\/strong> is conducting a standard investigation into the shooting, and the State Attorney\u2019s Office will review the findings once complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On Tuesday, April 7, 2026, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a press conference detailing a fatal deputy-involved shooting in Lakeland involving 76-year-old Ronald Breese, a Vietnam War veteran. Summary… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64557,"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":"12","_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":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcLzJiYjg3YjUyOWQyYWEzMTlhMDYwZDczODc4MzQ3ZTQ1LndlYnA_Zml0PTEwMjQlMkM1NzYmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIENvdW50eVx1MDBhMFNoZXJpZmZcdTAwYTBHcmFkeSBKdWRkXHUwMGEwdGFsa3MgYWZ0ZXIgZGVwdXR5IHNob290cyBhcm1lZCB2ZXRlcmFuIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.XN1bl7hkFgFY0IEvoqz7BqJ9kqsVm1e2lHfO4499MaEMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC8yYmI4N2I1MjlkMmFhMzE5YTA2MGQ3Mzg3ODM0N2U0NS0xMDI0eDU3Ni53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiUG9sayBDb3VudHlcdTAwYTBTaGVyaWZmXHUwMGEwR3JhZHkgSnVkZFx1MDBhMHRhbGtzIGFmdGVyIGRlcHV0eSBzaG9vdHMgYXJtZWQgdmV0ZXJhbiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.1TZeFKEjQGS4h1vpkc0hfBxg89-5Rn4cZ4Wfr-ctYvIMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14328],"class_list":["post-64555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-sheriff-grady-judd-talks-after-deputy-shoots-armed-veteran"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64555","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=64555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64558,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64555\/revisions\/64558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}