PORT ST. LUCIE \u2013 Sgt. Erik LaVasseur, recovering at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce from surgery to both eyes, is expected to be transferred soon to a rehabilitation facility, Port St. Lucie Police confirmed on Dec. 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will continue to be monitored and evaluated as he progresses through the next phase of recovery and treatment,\u201d Officer Brandon Martinez wrote in a press release. \u201cThe location of the rehabilitation center will not be released due to privacy considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaVasseur, a 27-year veteran of Port St. Lucie Police, underwent surgery Dec. 3 following an incident where he was shot twice in the face at Tradition on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n
Following the surgery at a trauma center at an undisclosed location, he was escorted back by a contingent of law enforcement agencies, including Port St. Lucie Police; St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office; Florida Highway Patrol; Palm Beach County Sheriff\u2019s Office; Broward County Sheriff\u2019s Office; and Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office, to Lawnwood on Dec. 5.<\/p>\n
LaVasseur, 55, was shot on Dec. 1 by Frankie Salvatore Riccio, 32, a Tradition resident, who subsequently was killed by gunfire from four Port St. Lucie police officers.<\/p>\n
Chief Leo Niemczyk said at a press conference on Dec. 4 that he was very encouraged by LaVasseur\u2019s progress following the surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe department remains encouraged by his progress and is grateful for the ongoing support, prayers, and well-wishes from the community, partner agencies, and law enforcement family,\u201d Martinez wrote in the press release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2013 Sgt. Erik LaVasseur, recovering at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce from surgery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-84136","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\/84136","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=84136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}