{"id":67750,"date":"2025-12-02T09:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/67750\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T09:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:05:08","slug":"port-st-lucie-police-officer-shot-in-face-suspect-killed-in-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/67750\/","title":{"rendered":"Port St. Lucie police officer shot in face, suspect killed in shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n

A Port St. Lucie police officer<\/a> was shot in the face while responding to a service call Monday evening, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Six officers arrived at the home that was the source of the call at the 11000 block of SW Lake Park Drive around 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Within a minute of their arrival, the officers were met by an adult male holding an assault rifle outside the home. The suspect exchanged gunfire with the officers and was shot dead, Police Chief Leo Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n

Niemczyk identified the injured officer as Sgt. Erik LeVasseur, a 27-year veteran of the department. None of the other officers who responded to the home were injured, Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n

KANSAS POLICE OFFICER DIES AFTER BEING SHOT WHILE RESPONDING TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CALL<\/a><\/p>\n

\"officers <\/p>\n

An officer paces the crime scene in the 11000 block of SW Lake Park Drive in Port St. Lucie.\u00a0 (WPTV)<\/p>\n

Though details are still preliminary, Niemczyk said that the incident stemmed from a neighbor dispute involving a mental health call<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"port <\/p>\n

A Port St. Lucie, Fla., police cruiser.\u00a0 (X\/@PSLPolice)<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s the notification that you just dread every day, but it\u2019s always in the back of your mind, as a police chief<\/a>, as a leader in law enforcement. It\u2019s something that you\u2019re always very aware of, afraid of, concerned for, and then it happens,” Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n

\"officers <\/p>\n

Officers on scene in the 11000 block of SW Lake Park Drive in Port St. Lucie, Fla.\u00a0 (WPTV)<\/p>\n

Sgt. LeVasseur<\/a> was taken to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce and remains in surgery.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n

“We\u2019re very optimistic for his prognosis. And at this time, we\u2019re just asking for prayers,” Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n

An investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Bradford Betz is a Fox News Digital breaking reporter covering crime, political issues, <\/a>and much more.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A Port St. Lucie police officer was shot in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[265,28,7107,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-67750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-crime","tag-florida","tag-police-and-law-enforcement","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67750","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=67750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}