Florida Sheriffs Association

Incident involving Deputy Sheriff of the Year winners hits close to home

The Florida Sheriffs Association Deputy Sheriff of the Year award is often based on a story where good wins over evil. Many times the award spotlights heroic acts in which lives are saved and the bad guy goes to jail.

This year's award was more difficult, even though it was based on an act of bravery. Because the incident resulted in the loss of the Sheriff's wife and a fellow deputy, it is difficult to recall the incident without experiencing a sense of sadness for what was lost.

In fact, the Florida Sheriffs were gathered at their annual winter conference in 2007, many of them accompanied by their spouses, when details began unfolding related to the tragic event, which struck just a little too close to home.

The story reminds us all of the dangers that our law-enforcement officers - including the Sheriff and family members - face every day. They deserve to be recognized for their courage.

A related example of courage came when Jackson County Sheriff Johnny McDaniel, known as "Johnny Mac," addressed the nearly 500 people gathered for the FSA 2008 Summer banquet this past July to tell his story. He told it as a soldier somberly tells stories of the frontline, leaving few dry eyes in the room at the end. What follows here is an account of the day Sheriff McDaniel lost his wife and a deputy at the hands of two men bent on revenge.

A quiet day in a quiet town
On the afternoon of January 30, 2007, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office Victim's Advocate, Mellie McDaniel, was running errands for her husband, Jackson County Sheriff Johnny McDaniel. Mellie called Sheriff McDaniel on their Nextel direct connect to let him know she was going to stop by their home, located in a rural part of the county. While they were talking, she told him a car was following her into their driveway. Sheriff McDaniel suggested it was maybe a door-to-door salesperson, and told her to tell whoever it was that they didn't want any. But Mellie acted a little frightened and asked him to stay on the line, so they kept talking. A second later, Mellie keyed the Nextel and Sheriff McDaniel heard her scream.

What happened next occurred in just four minutes.

Sheriff McDaniel immediately radioed dispatch for back-up and advised them that he was enroute. Captain Joey Rabon and Corporal Billy Dozier were just two minutes away and raced to the scene. Deputy Mike Altman was just north of the Sheriff's home and was the first to arrive.

As Sheriff McDaniel drove, he searched for the guns he had secured to protect his grandchildren. Not finding them, he then dug for the spare he kept in his front seat console. No success. Stopping his SUV in the driveway, he jumped out of the vehicle unarmed. When he looked, he saw a man in camouflage clothing step out of the bushes, leveling a .38-caliber Taurus handgun at him. He fired. The bullet lodged in Sheriff McDaniel's car, as he hit the ground, taking cover behind his open front door. Later, Sheriff McDaniel marveled at how his assailant had missed hitting him. "God put up a shield," he told his fellow Sheriffs, "because he was about 10 feet away from me when he fired."

Corporal Dozier responded to the gunfire, opening up his .40-caliber Glock, while Captain Rabon fired an AR-15, similar to the military's M16 semiautomatic rifle. The camouflage man went down.

Then a second man appeared, dressed in a suit, tie, hat and ponytail. He was pointing a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol toward the Sheriff. Corporal Dozier fired, taking him out, too.

After assuring there were no other immediate threats, Sheriff McDaniel went around to the back of the home and found his wife and Deputy Altman, side by side, by the back door. The killers apparently had dragged them there to hide them from view, in case anyone drove by. It was determined later that Mellie McDaniel had been shot in the back of the head with a .38, while kneeling down. Deputy Altman had been shot once in the face and twice more while lying on his back.

As he dealt with the tragedy that day, Sheriff McDaniel says he balanced his law-enforcement side, which had him asking what case might have prompted such a level of grave revenge. That's when his Undersheriff, Major John Dennis, recognized the man in camouflage as being Lionel Sands, the suspect in a six-year-old murder case.

The body of Sands' wife was found in the shallow end in their swimming pool. The autopsy showed she died from a blow to the head, most likely by a hammer or other tool.

Though suspected of murder, Sands was never charged. Still, the life insurance companies prevented him from collecting more than $500,000 in benefits.

The day before the shootout, Sands received the news that he was going to be liable for about $32,000 in legal expenses related to a federal court fight with his dead wife's family over the death benefit.

Investigators believed the two men had been planning the attack on Sheriff McDaniel and his wife for some time. The other gunman, 54-year-old handyman Daniel Brown, and Sands had been monitoring their target victims for at least a month. A friend of Mellie McDaniel told investigators that someone had stopped by the McDaniels' home looking for someone named "McDonald." Mellie McDaniel told the friend that one of them had a ponytail and said he was dressed in a suit and tie.

Sheriff McDaniel said he barely knew Sands, though he had been cordial when running into him at the local Wal-Mart or McDonald's. He was unaware of the insurance lawsuit, too, until after the shooting.

Sad but courageous end
The full story of Sands and Brown died with them that day, and while we join Sheriff McDaniel and the entire Jackson County Sheriff's Office in their mourning, the Florida Sheriffs wanted to express thanks to the two deputies who helped prevent further tragedy. Because of the heroic actions by Captain Joey Rabon and Corporal Billy Dozier, Sheriff McDaniel's life was spared. And because of their bravery, the Florida Sheriffs Association awards committee has chosen them as co-winners of the 2007 Deputy of the Year. Congratulations, gentlemen.

Brevard's Harvey Named Runner-Up

At approximately 9:30 p.m. on August 13, 2007, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office received a call of a burglary involving theft of firearms at a mobile-home park. Residents had witnessed two men visiting an elderly homeowner and reported them removing firearms without the homeowner's knowledge. Witnesses also had seen a rifle taken by one of the subjects placed on the bed of a truck.

Deputy Tabbitha Harvey and Cpl. Tim Goodwin responded and confronted the two male subjects near the residence. They were initially cooperative, but one became agitated when deputies located the stolen firearm in a nearby truck. As he showed more agitation, Deputy Harvey conducted a frisk and discovered he had a firearm concealed behind his back in the waistband of his pants.

He ignored the commands of the deputies, pulling away from Deputy Harvey, and reached for the firearm. Cpl. Goodwin struggled with the subject and forced him to the ground. As the subject continued to resist, he pointed the loaded gun at Cpl. Goodwin at close range. Deputy Harvey quickly drew her firearm, and in a split second fired multiple accurate rounds at the subject, killing him.

In nominating Deputy Harvey for the award, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office noted that her actions not only saved the life of a fellow deputy, but prevented further loss of life and injury. They credited the two officers' superior training, tactical readiness and teamwork, which enabled Deputy Harvey and Cpl. Goodwin to survive a challenge similar to what law enforcement faces every day.

For her exceptional actions in this high-risk situation, Deputy Harvey received both the Medal of Valor and Deputy Sheriff of the Year from her Sheriff's Office. And the 67 Sheriffs of Florida have chosen to join in recognizing Deputy Harvey by naming her Runner-Up for FSA's 2007 Deputy Sheriff of the Year. Congratulations.