Florida authorities announced Monday they had arrested a woman for her role in the death of a deputy sheriff during an ambush and shootout at a Lake County home Friday night.
Julie Sulpizio, 48, is charged with first-degree premeditated 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, WOFL reported. She was taken into custody Friday night before the shootout that left Master Deputy Sheriff Bradley Link, her husband, and her two daughters dead.
Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said Suplizio was arrested Monday at AdventHealth Waterman Hospital, where she was taken after the chaotic incident Friday night in Eustis.
As CrimeOnline reported, Link, 28, was killed in the shooting and two other deputies were wounded. Three residents of the home were found dead when the dust cleared: Julie Sulpizio’s husband, 49-year-old Michael Sulpizio, and her two daughters, Savannah, 22, and Cheyenne Sulpizio, 23. Lake County officials said that Michael Sulpizio was their stepfather.
Lake County identified the wounded deputies as Master Deputy Sheriff Harold Howell, 41, and Deputy First Class Stefano Gargano, 28.
Grinnell provided more detail during a news conference on Monday about what happened Friday night, WESH reported. He said that the initial 911 call came from a neighbor of the Sulpizios who reporte that Julie Sulpizio was in his yard assaulting people. He said that she was hitting the caller’s wife, telling them they were sinners and acting “religious.”
A deputy arrived on the scene, WOFL reported, and encountered Sulpizio in the yard with her hands behind her back. The deputy ordered her to back up, but she instead came towoard the deputy, who drew his taser.
Sulpizio told the deputy that her neighbors “were involved in pedophilia,” Grinnell said, and claimed to be “Helen,” not Julie,” who she said “is in heaven.”
“She then went on to state, ‘You see, the thing is, we needed to trick Lucy,’ and we later learned [Lucy] to be a name she calls Lucifer,” Grinnell said Sulpizio then pointed to the deputy and said, “You are one of them.”
A second deputy arrived on scene, and Sulpizio was handcuffed and taken to the hospital for an evaluation. At that point, the deputies decided to conduct a welfare check on the Sulpizio home, where they found the two dead dogs in the yard and an open window with the screen kicked out. That’s when they called for backup, Grinnell said.
Grinnell said that Link and Howell entered the home and that Link was ambushed by Michael Sulpizio, who shot him in the back. The incident was captured on Link’s body camera.
Howell was wounded but got out, Grinnell said, according to WKMG. Gargano was a member of the SWAT team that made entry. His team pulled him out of the house, and he underwent his third surgery on Monday.
Grinnell said that Link’s body camera footage showed Sulpizio and the two young women discussing suicide before the SWAT team made entry, WOFL said. The medical examiner has not made a determination of their manner of death.
The sheriff said that Julie Sulpizio showed no remorse and appeared “joyful” when she was arrested at the hospital.
Investigators said they found more than 20 firearms in the home, “gathered, placed and staged.” They also found conspiracy-theory media, gas masks, and other emergency prep items.
Julie Sulpizio reportedly told deputies that she had been trying to lure her neighbors to her home where Michael Sulpizio would kill them.
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[Featured image: Julie Sulpizio/Lake County Sheriff’s Office]
