PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Sgt. Erik LaVasseur, a 27-year-veteran of the Port St. Lucie Police Department, is making \u201ca very strong recovery\u201d from surgery to remove shrapnel from both eyes, resulting from a shooting incident at Tradition on Dec. 1, Police Chief Leo Niemczyk said Dec. 4.<\/p>\n
LaVasseur, 55, was shot twice in the face during an incident on Dec. 1 at about 6:08 p.m., in the 11000 block of Southwest Lake Park Drive in the gated Tradition community.<\/p>\n
LaVasseur was transported to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce and was subsequently transferred to a trauma center at an undisclosed location for the surgery, Niemczyk said at a press conference on Dec. 4<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the shrapnel that could be removed was removed from his eyes. It is anticipated that in the next two days he will be returned to Lawnwood,\u201d Niemczyk said. \u201cAt this point, we are not aware of his level of eye function.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, LaVasseur is in good spirits, Niemczyk noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is spending more time not sedated, he is aware and alert and is writing notes, making jokes to his wife and co-workers, so our spirits are heavily lifted. He is a very strong man with a very strong will,\u201d Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
For his safety, LaVasseur was first put into a medically-induced coma.<\/p>\n
LaVasseur was one of six officers who responded to two 911 calls on Dec. 1 regarding what was at first believed to be a mental health issue at a home in Tradition.<\/p>\n
One call was from a woman, who said that her son, later identified as Frankie Salvatore Riccio, 32, was \u201cacting crazy the past couple of days and to please come take him away,\u201d Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
The other was from a neighbor who told dispatchers that Riccio \u201cpointed a gun at her and told her to get back into the house,\u201d Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
When officers arrived, LaVasseur spoke with the mother over the phone, learned then that Riccio had been smoking medical grade marijuana for the past several days, Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
LaVasseur directed fellow officers to set up a perimeter at the home behind patrol cars and on foot while LaVasseur, at a next-door neighbor\u2019s house, approached Riccio, who was in his garage.<\/p>\n
As orders were given to Riccio to step out, Riccio emerged from the garage and fired shots from an AK-47 assault rifle with the shots lodging in LaVasseur\u2019s face, Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
Riccio then crossed the street and fired on the officers, Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
Four of the officers \u2013 including two trainees \u2013 then returned fire, instantly killing Riccio, who also shot at the officers.<\/p>\n
No other injuries were reported and one officer did not shoot, Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
In all, Riccio fired 10 times and officers returned fire with a total of 62 shots, Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very, very proud of (the officers), they all responded very appropriately and with incredible efficiency,\u201d Niemczyk said. \u201cAs you can imagine, they have been traumatized, as any human being would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The involved officers have been put on paid administrative leave, which is standard policy, as much for their own mental health welfare, Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
In subsequent investigation, it was learned that Riccio, who was living at the house, collected an arsenal of weapons, as well as gas masks, ballistic vest, non-perishable survival food and a flashbang or stun grenade, used to temporarily disorient people, Niemcyzk said. \u201cIt\u2019s concerning that he was preparing himself for some kind of a battle at this point,\u201d Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
Police had not received any calls regarding Riccio before, Niemczyk said. \u201cHe was not someone who was on our radar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a drug-induced state that he was in, something along the lines of delusional and hallucinating, so I think it was more likely substance (abuse) in this case, no history we\u2019ve identified of mental health crisis, no Baker Acts that we could find,\u201d Niemczyk said.<\/p>\n
Niemczyk said that he is grateful for the community\u2019s response following the Dec. 1 incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to thank the community, as well as the business partners, law enforcement partners, politicians, the outpouring of support has been overwhelming,\u201d Niemczyk said. \u201cWe are looking forward to the day that (LaVasseur) is discharged from the hospital and we can greet him and give him a hero\u2019s welcome, we are very grateful that we have that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Sgt. Erik LaVasseur, a 27-year-veteran of the Port St. Lucie Police Department, is making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-71792","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","11":"tag-st_lucie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71792","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=71792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}