A suicidal man is dead after a rollover crash near Winter Haven, Florida.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office received a call from a man at 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 requesting to speak to a deputy.
The man told the dispatcher that he wanted to kill himself and was driving around Winter Haven.
At 8:09 a.m., an emergency call came in to PCSO from On-Star, alerting them that a driver (the same man) was driving around in his truck saying he was going to "kill himself and a deputy sheriff."
On-Star connected the call to PCSO, and the man hung up.
Staff with On-Star provided deputies with information from their conversation with the man. Deputies located the suspect as he was driving his black Chevrolet pickup.
PCSO deputies were able to deploy stopsticks, which gave the suspect a flat tire. PCSO says the suspect intentionally rear-ended a Toyota truck that was in front of him, then he intentionally rear-ended a Ford Explorer, before being stopped by a precision immobilization technique (PIT) administered by a deputy.
The suspect's truck left the roadway and began to roll, ejecting him. He was not wearing a seatbelt.
The suspect suffered critical injuries and was airlifted to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The driver of the Ford Explorer that was rear-ended was also transported to a hospital with injuries.
After the crash, deputiesresponded to the suspect's Winter Haven home, where they found notes he left behind, and his dog tied up with instructions. The notes indicate he was intent on killing himself.
"Deputies once again put themselves in harm's way to protect the community from an out-of-control suspect set on killing himself and others. Thankfully, the victims who were intentionally struck by this suspect as he fled down US Hwy 27 were not more critically injured," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
