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TAMPA, Fla – A former Temple Terrace <\/a>police officer is behind bars after making his first court appearance, accused in a high-speed crash that killed a 6-year-old girl and seriously injured her sister<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hillsborough County<\/a> State Attorney Suzy Lopez said she is outraged by the circumstances surrounding the case, calling the officer\u2019s actions “sickening.”<\/p>\n Courtesy: Florida Highway Patrol <\/p>\n Former Temple Terrace police officer Zachary Krug appeared before a judge in a wheelchair with a cast on his right leg. He was arrested the day before and fired from his position.<\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n According to the Florida<\/a> Highway Patrol, Krug was driving an unmarked police SUV down East Fowler Avenue on April 15, briefly activating his lights to get through a red light. Troopers say he then accelerated, reaching 104 mph in a 50 mph zone.<\/p>\n Court documents indicate prosecutors believe Krug was speeding because he was running late to work.<\/p>\n Authorities say Krug crashed into another car as it was turning left toward North Drive. A 6-year-old girl was killed in the crash. Her 8-year-old sister remains hospitalized, while a 1-year-old child was treated and released.<\/p>\n Investigators say while Krug may have briefly activated his lights earlier, his lights and siren were not on at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n Lopez did not hold back in criticizing the former officer\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n “It’s infuriating to me that the choices of this officer have cost the life of a six-year-old little girl. Her sister is still in the hospital as we sit here right now,” Lopez said. “He was not following a bad guy. He was not rushing to render aid to someone. He logged in late to his computer for his work shift.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Lopez said the officer\u2019s actions left her outraged.<\/p>\n “There is no roadway in the state of Florida outside of Daytona where he can drive 104 miles an hour.”<\/p>\n The other side:<\/p>\n Krug\u2019s defense attorney, Ralph Fernandez, urged the public to consider his client\u2019s background.<\/p>\n “He was an honorable officer. He worked at the sheriff’s office as a detention deputy. He comes from an LEO family, military family. Great kid. And I can assure you that it’s not as it seems,” Fernandez said. “Our prayers are with the family [of the victims].”\u00a0<\/p>\n Fernandez also suggested Krug may have been pursuing someone at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n “We’re checking into some rather evident evidence that he may [have] been in a pursuit,” Fernandez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lopez disputed that claim.<\/p>\n “We respectfully disagreed that he was in pursuit,” Lopez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n Prosecutors say they will argue Krug should remain in jail until trial, citing concerns about public safety.<\/p>\n “This defendant has proven that he is a danger to the community. He was supposed to be protecting our public, keeping people safe, and in fact, people needed to be kept safe from him,” Lopez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Krug is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial detention hearing Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source: Information in this story comes from court documents, the Florida Highway Patrol, along with statements made by the Hillsborough County State Attorney\u2019s Office and the defense attorney.<\/p>\n Tampa<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Temple Terrace<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla – A former Temple Terrace police officer is behind bars after making his first court appearance,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,629,115,135,137,136,8609,628],"class_list":["post-255657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-temple-terrace","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/am-fi-5.1.jpg\")
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