A Florida man was shot dead by a Polk County Sheriff’s deputy after a bizarre sequence of events that began with a melted Almond Joy candy bar.
Nineteen-year-old Henry Maynard’s grandmother had brought the candy bar for him but found him fast asleep. So, she left it on his laptop.
When Maynard woke up, the candy had melted, and he “went into a rage,” said Sheriff Grady Judd in a video statement.
Maynard ran almost a mile to his parents’ house, grabbed a car, and started driving without having a license or registration.
The grandmother quickly called Maynard’s parents, warning them that he was in a rage and in the car. As the situation unfolded, Maynard’s parents and a deputy arrived at the scene near Oakwood Estates in Winter Haven.
According to Sheriff Judd, Maynard’s actions became increasingly erratic and violent. “He was out of control,” the sheriff claimed.
Maynard also called 911, saying he was about to commit a crime. He followed through, reversing his car, knocking over his grandmother, and then accelerating forward, crashing into the deputy’s vehicle in a T-bone collision.
A witness described him as acting “like a madman” as he tried to enter the police vehicle and started climbing inside. The situation escalated, and Deputy Christian Quattlebaum was forced to shoot Maynard, who died on the spot.
Maynard couldn’t be saved, even after his father’s efforts to perform CPR on him.
This wasn’t Maynard’s first run-in with the law. He was previously arrested for aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer.
Fortunately, Maynard’s 81-year-old grandmother is recovering in the hospital with a broken arm. Despite the chaos, she is in stable condition.
The deputy was treated for injuries and the incident is being investigated by the 10th Judicial Circuit’s Officer Involved Deadly Incident (OIDI) Task Force.
