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Sheriff: 2 Deputies Made 'Fatal Mistake'

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 2, 2007

WEST PALM BEACH - Two Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies who were struck and killed by a fellow deputy while pursuing a stolen car made "a fatal mistake" that likely caused their deaths, the sheriff said Thursday.
Deputies Donta Manuel, 33, and Jonathan Wallace, 23, were killed early Wednesday after deploying a device in the road to puncture the tires of the stolen car. The deputies were hit and killed by another deputy who was in pursuit in a patrol car.

Manuel and Wallace did not follow procedures that called for the use of a device that would have allowed them to pull the so-called "stop stick" from the roadway without getting in the path of the oncoming patrol car, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.

"Had it been followed, there may well have been a different outcome," he said.

The device was still in one of the deputy's vehicles, he said.

The chase began early Wednesday morning after a Belle Glade resident called police to report that a neighbor's car was being stolen.

Wallace and Manuel positioned themselves in front of the stolen car and deployed the stop stick.

Seconds after the stolen car was disabled, the deputies made a "split-second decision" to dash out into the roadway to remove the device, Bradshaw said. That decision turned out to be "a fatal mistake," he said.

Bradshaw said investigators may never know why the deputies did not use the retracting device.

The driver of the patrol car that struck the deputies, Gregorio Fernandez, 39, was being treated for a concussion and a broken arm and remained in fair condition, Bradshaw said.

The Associated Press

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