A man who had recently been released from jail was fatally shot by cops after charging at them with garden shears after swimming in a Florida lake and being bitten by alligators, according to police.
Timothy Schulz, 42, was under the influence of meth when police found him in Lakeland, Florida, about an hour’s drive southwest of Orlando, according to authorities.
According to WKMG, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office responded to a convenience store on Monday morning after receiving a report of a “bizarre” man asking to call his son.
Police said they searched for Schulz but couldn’t find him until nearly two hours later, when they received a call about a man swimming in a lake with an alligator.
A witness told police that Schulz, who was released from jail on May 20, was treading water, but only his head was visible, according to the report.
According to the witness, when they attempted to speak with Schulz, he growled at them. According to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, another person “actually took a life vest and tried to give it to [Schulz]” but “he wouldn’t take it,” according to reports.
Schulz was walking away from the lake with garden shears when police arrived, according to authorities. When the former inmate charged the cops with the shears, “our deputies tried to de-escalate,” Judd said.
“We also tried to taze him on two different occasions and he continued to charge at them,” according to him.
The cops shot Schulz several times after he entered a police vehicle and attempted to get “the rifle and/or the shotgun out,” Judd said.
The sheriff stated that when Schulz reached for the guns, “all warnings had to stop and the action had to begin.”
Schulz died in the shooting, and no officers were injured. According to reports, the deputies involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, which is standard procedure.
Judd was taken aback by Schulz’s behavior: “The fact that he was bitten by an alligator and still continued his rampage is shocking.”
He continued: “If you’re on enough meth, then the person you see is not the person that’s attacking.”
According to authorities, the former inmate faced multiple meth-related charges.
