A Florida sheriff’s deputy was reportedly shot and killed on Sunday night while responding to a neighborly dispute over a cat.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a homeowner called 911 to report that her neighbor shot her cat in Lake Placid, about 100 miles southeast of Tampa.
{mosads} Deputy William Gentry of the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office responded to the call with a deputy-in-training and went over to the neighbor’s front door to confront the alleged culprit.
Police said the man, Joseph Edward Ables, then pulled out a gun and shot Gentry in the head.
Gentry, 40, was airlifted to a hospital but died on Monday, the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Spokesman Scott Dressel said at a news conference that this was the type of neighborly dispute that deputies frequently encounter.
“It was just a typical neighbor dispute that deputies answer all the time. It’s just one of those things that goes along with law enforcement: There is no routine call,” Dressel said. “All law enforcement officers always have to be on their toes. And unfortunately we’ve had the worst that could happen, happen to us.”
Ables, 69, was charged with attempted first-degree murder, possession of a weapon by a felon and resisting an officer with violence on Monday. He was on probation at the time for battery of an elderly person.
Dressel said those charges probably will be upgraded now that Gentry has died.
He is the first Highlands County deputy to be killed as the result of a crime while in the line of duty, the department said.
Inspector James Rodgers and Captain Robert Hopton Jr. died as a result of a 1995 plane crash.
“It hits home in so many ways,” Dressel said. “We are definitely a family here.”
Gentry’s brother is also a deputy in the department.
“His brother has already stated he lost his hero, and it’s the same thing for a lot of us,” Dressel added.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement that “in the true spirit of a public servant,” Gentry’s organs will be donated.