‘We shot him — a lot. He asked to be shot… we obliged him.’

After a suspect claiming to be “Jesus and God” placed his own parents in a violent hostage situation, a no-nonsense Florida sheriff made clear, “He asked to be shot … and we obliged him.”

“… we shot him — a lot.”

(Video Credit: Polk Sheriff)

Friday in Bartow, Florida, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a media briefing alongside Bartow Police Chief Steve Walker following a gunfight that left two officers wounded and the suspect dead. Of 34-year-old Wayne Volz, Judd, known for warning criminals they were putting their lives against the Second Amendment, had no qualms in calling out the deceased suspect who pistol-whipped his own mom in the lead-up to the altercation with law enforcement.

“He was out of control,” asserted Judd, who explained how the threat to the public had begun with Volz holding his parents hostage in their Fort Meade home, where he also lived, following an argument. It was when the situation escalated to Volz accompanying his father to the Bartow Lowe’s that a gunfight ensued with responding officers.

“There were a lot of shots fired. It was gunfight. And we shot him — a lot … He asked to be shot and killed, and we obliged him,” explained the sheriff as Polk County Sheriff Deputy Edwin Alexander and Bartow Police Department Officer Mark Sills were shot during the incident.

Sills had been struck in his bulletproof vest while Alexander was struck in the forearm. Both were taken to the hospital and said to be in “good condition.”

As Judd had explained, Volz, a known drug addict, had taken away his parents’ cellphones and threatened their lives Friday morning while claiming to be “Jesus and God.”

“He held them hostage; he pistol-whipped mom; he put a gun between his father’s eyes and told him he needed to beg for his life.”

The hostage situation carried on until the afternoon when the father explained that he needed to go to work, and “Wayne said, ‘Well I need to go to Bartow and kill a lot of people anyway.”

Before arriving at the Lowe’s where employees hid the father, called 911, and, “by the grace of God,” Volz hadn’t opened fire, the suspect had reportedly instructed his father to make a stop where he was said to have procured pills from an as yet unidentified individual.

As law enforcement had arrived on the scene, Volz was seen walking through the area, leading to an encounter with a drone operator who threatened to use a taser on him. When the suspect fled, he encountered Alexander and shot the deputy’s car “seven, eight times” in addition to striking the deputy’s forearm. Volz then encountered Sills and other law enforcement officials who succeeded in neutralizing the threat.

According to PCSD, the suspect had a “criminal history that includes previous arrests for battery domestic violence, larceny, burglary, violation of probation, and failure to appear.”

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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