Feb. 17, 2021, was the day Deputy Michael Magli was killed in the line of duty when a drunk driver crashed into him.

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is remembering one of its deputies who was killed by a drunk driver on this day five years ago.

Feb. 17, 2021, was the day Deputy Michael Magli was killed in the line of duty when a drunk driver crashed into him. He was 30 years old at the time and had been with PSCO for around eight years.

Magli was a husband and father to two daughters.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri offered this statement to mark the fifth anniversary of Magli’s death:

“Some will say that Michael was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I say nonsense. Deputy Michael J. Magli was in the right place at the right time doing what cops do every day throughout this country: protecting others even if it means grave personal danger to themselves.”


The night Deputy Michael Magli was killed

On the night of the Magli’s death, Pinellas County Fire Rescue spotted a driver, Robert Allen Holzaepfel, slumped over and unresponsive at a red light.

Gualtieri says fire crews decided to break the truck’s window to try to help him. When they broke the window, deputies said Holzaepfel drove off and led them on a chase.

In an effort to stop Holzaepfel, Deputy Magli parked his car in a median in the area of East Lake Road and Forelock Road in Tarpon Springs and took “stop sticks” from his SUV to place on the road.

As he did so, Holzaepfel’s truck “spun out, flipped over and very, very violently slammed into Deputy Magli and his cruiser,” the sheriff said.

Magli was pinned under his SUV and died.

“There’s nothing harder,” Gualtieri said during a press conference at the time. “It’s one of those things that you can’t prepare for it. It’s one of those things you have to do. To say it’s a tragedy is an understatement. There’s no words that can make any sense of it, there’s nothing you can express.”

A funeral was held for Magli six days after his death at Trinity Memorial Gardens.

“I don’t want to say goodbye, I’m not ready,” Stephanie, his wife, said at the memorial.

She was followed by Magli’s brother, who spoke on the deputy’s selfless heroism.

“My family and I are proud of our hero, Deputy Michael James Magli, my big brother,” Magli’s brother said.




Sentencing of Robert Holzaepfel

After Magli’s death, the sheriff said Robert Holzaepfel appeared to have been driving drunk with a suspended license and had 16 prior arrests. 

His blood alcohol level registered at .230, the sheriff’s office reported.

He was sentenced in September 2022 to 35 years in prison after entering a guilty plea. He was charged with first-degree murder, DUI manslaughter and aggravated fleeing and eluding police officers.


Previous 10 Tampa Bay News coverage contributed to this report.