Officer.com Editor's Note: Officer Arnulfo Crispin passed away overnight and his body was escorted by police from Lakeland Regional Medical Center to an undisclosed location, according to WTSP-TV.
LAKELAND -- The news was expected, but that didn't make it any easier for the family, friends and co-workers of Lakeland police officer Arnulfo Crispin.
The 25-year-old officer, shot in the head Sunday night while investigating a report of suspicious activity at a park known for gang violence and drug dealing, will not recover.
"There will never be a time when this will be easy to deal with," a tearful Police Chief Lisa Womack said Tuesday evening during a news conference at police department headquarters, with dozens of Crispin's fellow officers and co-workers lined up behind her. "It will never be something that is an easy thing to handle."
Womack said the family is making final medical decisions.
"The family is clearly devastated with what happened," Womack said. "We are honoring their privacy until they are ready to speak."
Womack said Crispin epitomized Lakeland police officers with his "integrity, honesty and courage."
The shooting happened when Crispin was checking on three men in a city park on Crystal Grove Lane. The officer, according to a probable-cause affidavit, approached the men and started a conversation. He asked whether he could pat them down to search for weapons or drugs.
One of the men, Kyle Daivontae Williams, pulled out a gun and shot Crispin once in the head, and the other two men ran away, according to police interviews with the other two men.
One of the men told police Williams had shown him the gun earlier in the day. There was another man in the park, but he said he had turned his head and did not see Crispin get shot.
Neighbors reported hearing a single gunshot and seeing several men running out of the park, according to the affidavit. Six minutes after Crispin radioed in that he was going to talk to the men, Lakeland police officer Heather Freeman arrived at the scene. Moments later, she called in with the news that Crispin had been shot.
Williams, 19, was arrested at 8 a.m. Monday after a manhunt that included officers and deputies from neighboring jurisdictions. His mother assisted authorities in getting her son to surrender, police said.
On Tuesday afternoon, investigators searching nearby apartments found a gun of the same caliber as the one they were seeking, police said. Ballistics tests should show whether it is the one used in the shooting.
Williams appeared in a Polk County court Tuesday afternoon and was ordered held without bail on a charge of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer. The charge almost certainly will be upgraded to murder.
Williams, appearing in court from jail via video, responded with few words as the judge read the charge against him.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
