Polk County Sheriffs Deputy shoots dead Jessiram Hweih Rivera Winter Haven woman threatening him with shovel. Agitated woman had a history of prior violent arrests.
A Florida deputy shot dead a woman who threatened to attack him with a shovel, after being spotted acting erratically amid traffic, sheriff officials said.
Jessiram Hweih Rivera, 24, died Thursday afternoon at a hospital after being shot by Sgt. Sean Speakman near Redemption Baptist Church, where he located her following a report of a woman walking in and out of traffic, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
‘She was in an obvious state of agitation and she was holding a shovel,’ sheriff’s officials said in a statement.
As Speakman encountered Rivera in a private driveway nearby, she proceeded to ‘raise the shovel’ and point it at the deputy when walking toward him. She then ignored several commands to drop it — prompting the deputy to fire four shots as he backed away, striking her, sheriff officials said.
Speakman started life-saving measures, including CPR, before Rivera was rushed to a hospital, where she died according to ClickOrlando.
Extensive criminal history and drug dependency issues
Rivera, of Winter Haven, had an extensive criminal history in Florida dating back to 2013, including felony convictions of battery on a law enforcement officer and possession of cocaine. She had been most recently charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Polk County last November, records show.
Speakman, who was hired by the department in 1998, before entering a training academy and becoming a deputy in 2005, before being promoted to sergeant in 2018 is now on administrative leave with pay per agency policy as an investigation into the deputy-involved shooting proceeds, sheriff’s officials said.
