Anti-Government Family in Florida Killed One Deputy and Injured Two Others After Luring Them to Weapon-Stocked Home, Sheriff Says
Julie Sulpizio (left) is accused of murder after an ambush of law enforcement officials were shot at, killing one and injuring two others.
Aug. 7 2024, Published 3:48 p.m. ET
A woman in Florida reportedly lured deputies to her home, where her husband and two adult children ambushed the trio, fatally shooting one officer in the back and injuring two others, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Around 7:45 p.m. on Aug. 2, deputies received a call about a woman who was trespassing and assaulting people at a home in Lake County, Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said.
Members of the Lake County Sheriff's Office held a press conference to discuss the details of what happened during the ambush attack.
At the scene, deputies encountered a woman, later identified at 48-year-old Julie Sulpizio, who allegedly claimed she was “Helen under God’s will” and made several other religious statements, Front Page Detectives reported.
Sulpizio convinced the deputies to go to her home down the street to check on her husband and two adult children, officials said. The deputies then detained Sulpizio while other officers went to her home.
The officers checking the residence spotted two small dogs dead in the yard and heard movement inside the home, Grinnell said. According to the sheriff, the responding officers believed a home invasion or burglary may have occurred after they spotted an open window with the screen kicked out.
Lake County Sheriff's Office Master Deputy Sheriff Bradley Michael Link was killed while responding to the call, officials said.
Deputies attempted to contact the people inside the home for about an hour before Master Deputy Sheriff Bradley Michael Link, 28, and Deputy Harold Howell, 41, entered the home.
Body camera footage shows Link walked through a laundry room and into a hallway, where a man in what appeared to be body armor and armed with a rifle sitting on a couch, was “waiting to ambush" the deputies, Grinnell said.
Link did not see the man, believed to be Sulpizio’s husband, Michael Sulpizio, and turned the other way before a hail of gunfire erupted, striking Link in the back multiple times, officials said.
A bullet also hit Howell in the wrist, as Michael Sulpizio continued to shoot at Link, who unsuccessfully tried to crawl to safety, the sheriff said. During this time, another perpetrator in the home reportedly began firing at deputies outside the home.
Master Deputy Sheriff Harold Howell was shot in the shoulder and is in stable condition.
Deputies, Grinnell said, tried to negotiate with the suspects in order to rescue Link, but they refused, and a woman inside the home allegedly yelled: “My king will kill all of you. You are Lucifer’s children."
A SWAT team then entered the home with a ballistic shield in order to rescue Link, but they were met with another hail of gunfire.
Stefano Gargano, 28, was shot through the wall multiple times. Deputies were able to retrieve him from the home despite the gunfire. Gargano remains in critical condition at the hospital.
The deputies reported hearing one of the suspects mention suicide before they heard two gunshots followed by a third. The SWAT team used a battering ram to knock down the front wall of the home and remove Link from the home.
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Gargano — who was shot in the abdomen area several times and under the arm — underwent his third surgery on Aug. 5, which “went very well,” Grinnell said.
He was airlifted to the hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Inside the home, cops found two women — 23-year-old Savannah Sulpizio and 22-year-old Cheyenne Sulpizio — dead on the couch from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, officers said. They also found Michael Sulpizio suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Grinnell said they found “anti-government propaganda” and “conspiracy-theory media” inside the home, as well as more than 20 firearms ranging from pistols and shotguns to high-caliber rifles, along with ammunition that was “gathered, placed and staged in the living room”.
Officials also found body armor, gas masks, medical bags and other items used in the attack.
Detectives spoke with Julie Sulpizio, who reportedly claimed she was God and that God speaks through her. She made claims of pedophilia against her neighbors, who she said she was trying to lure down to her home for her husband to kill, according to the sheriff.
On Aug. 5, prosecutors charged Julie Sulpizio with first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, seven counts of attempted murder, felony battery/strangulation, two counts of battery and battery on a law enforcement officer.
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