Florida man shot dead by police after he ran over his 81-year-old grandmother
The suspect got into a dispute with his grandmother over an Almond Joy she left on his computer
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A Florida man was shot and killed on Friday after hitting his grandmother with a vehicle and then getting into a confrontation with a Polk County deputy.
Henry Maynard, 19, reversed into his 81-year-old grandmother following an argument over an Almond Joy candy bar she had left on his computer.
He then tried to enter the car of sheriff’s deputy Christian Quattlebaum, 26, who shot him.
Maynard arrived at his grandmother’s house in Polk County at around 9.30pm local time according to a video by Sheriff Grady Judd.
In a second video statement, Judd described how Maynard was asleep at his grandmother’s house when she brought him an Almond Joy and placed it on his computer whilst he was asleep.
Maynard “went into a rage” when he woke and found the chocolate had melted.
He ran nearly a mile to his parents’ house, where he retrieved a bag and took a car before calling 911. The car was unregistered, and Maynard did not have a driving license.
“He tells the operator he’s about to commit a crime and he needs to be able to escape,” Judd said.
The grandmother called the parents and said, “he’s here in the car and he’s in a rage”, according to Judd.
Maynard’s mother, a Polk County detention deputy for 10 years, and father, a nurse with the county’s jail system, rushed to the scene.
With Maynard’s parents and Deputy Quattlebaum now at the scene near the Oakwood Estates in Winter Haven, Judd said that Maynard reversed the car knocking over his grandmother, and then accelerated forward and T-boned Quattlebaum’s vehicle.
Judd described how a witness then saw Maynard attempt to enter the deputy’s car: “A neighbor said that this man jumped out of his vehicle in an absolute rage, like a madman, ran to the driver-side door of the deputy’s vehicle and started yanking on it ‘til it came open and started climbing into the vehicle.”
“Our Deputy Quattlebaum is trying to get out of the passenger side of the car because he doesn’t know what this person’s doing. They just rammed his vehicle and is now trying to attack him.”
Quattlebaum then shot the suspect.
Maynard’s father initiated CPR to try and save his son’s life but the 19-year-old died at the scene.
The grandmother was left with a broken arm and taken by ambulance to hospital.
Quattlebaum has been with the Polk County Sheriff’s office for four and a half years.
An updated news release said the deputy was treated for the injuries he suffered during the incident.
The shooting is being investigated by the 10th Judicial Circuit’s Officer Involved Deadly Incident (OIDI) Task Force.