HAINES CITY, Fla. (WFLA) – Polk County deputies are currently investigating a deputy-involved shooting in Haines City.
Deputies say the incident happened around 5 p.m. Saturday after the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center received a 911 call from a man driving down Carl Boozer Road.
According to deputies, the man said he saw a mini-van pulled off to the side of the road with two women, who are mother and daughter, in the front seat who were fighting and screaming.
The man told deputies he heard the victim, who was in the driver’s seat, scream the other woman was going to shoot her. He notified authorities and left the scene.
When a deputy first arrived, he also saw the two fighting in the car with the victim screaming for help.
Deputies say the Linda Wages,76, refused to obey his verbal commands to stop and show him her hands. Wages ducked down and sat back up, and in fear of the victim’s life and his own life, the deputy shot Wages several times.
Wages was then taken to the hospital to be treated for gunshot wounds, however, does not appear to be life-threatening.
Wages daughter told deputies that Wages began to batter her following a family dispute by hitting her on the face, head, and shoulder, pulling her hair, and biting her. Wages then told Schutte that she (Wages) had a gun in her bag and she would shoot Schutte and “end it all” if she “didn’t stop blubbering.”
The deputy will be on paid administrative leave per standard protocol and has been a deputy for the past two years.
There will be three ongoing investigations related to this incident.
Wages has been charged with battery, domestic violence, aggravated assault, domestic violence, and she will be booked into the Polk County Jail upon her release from the hospital.
