{"id":69045,"date":"2025-12-03T03:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/69045\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T03:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:22:12","slug":"florida-officer-shot-in-face-during-mental-health-call-suspect-dead-sebastian-daily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/69045\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida officer shot in face during mental health call; suspect dead \u2013 Sebastian Daily"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 A veteran police sergeant was shot twice in the face while responding to a mental health-related disturbance call in Port St. Lucie. He was struck near his nose and cheek; the bullets did not reach his spine.<\/p>\n<p>Sgt. Erik LeVasseur, a 27-year member of the Port St. Lucie Police Department, was wounded Monday evening in the <a href=\"https:\/\/maps.app.goo.gl\/4oT8UPkCVk3VP9HW7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">11000 block of Southwest Lake Park Drive<\/a>. Police Chief Leo Niemczyk said the shooting erupted within a minute of officers arriving at the scene, where they encountered an adult male suspect armed with what appeared to be an AK-47 assault rifle.<\/p>\n<p>The suspect was killed in the ensuing confrontation, authorities said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The exchange of gunfire happened outside a home, leaving the suspect fatally wounded at the location, Niemczyk told reporters during a news conference outside the hospital where LeVasseur was being treated. Several shell casings were recovered from the scene.<\/p>\n<p>LeVasseur was rushed to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in nearby Fort Pierce and underwent surgery late Monday. He is currently in the intensive care unit on a respirator in serious condition.<\/p>\n<p>Six officers responded to the call in the Town Park Community of Tradition. They were all checked out as a precaution, but no other injuries were reported.<\/p>\n<p>The area is now secure, with an investigation in progress. Officials stressed that the public is not in danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 A veteran police sergeant was shot twice in the face while responding to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-69045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69045","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=69045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}