2 Fla. deputies ambushed during routine stop

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 2:15 PM PT – Saturday, September 11, 2021

A Florida sheriff’s office released dash cam footage of an ambush on two deputies. Brevard County, Florida Sheriff’s Office recently released footage of an Aug. 30 encounter that quickly took a turn for the worse.

Deputy Brian Potters can be seen in the video joking with the suspect, 38-year-old Paris Wilder, who was sitting in the backseat of a vehicle with a two-year-old child and a dog before Deputy Tyler Thoman asked to question the suspect outside the vehicle. The lighthearted banter between the officer and the suspect however quickly turned deadly.

Wilder suddenly jumped from the car with a rifle in hand and began firing at the deputies. His gun reportedly jammed at one point, in which Wilder used the butt of it to repeatedly assault one of the deputies.

Paris Wilder (Courtesy: Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)

Sheriff Wayne Ivey said the suspect had an extensive and violent criminal history and no regard for human life, doing everything he could to avoid an arrest as he knew he was facing several minimum mandatory prison sentences in pending cases.

Both officers survived the ambush and are expected to make a full recovery, however the suspect died from his injuries. The two other individuals at the traffic stop returned to the scene and cooperated with deputies following the attack.

Sheriff Ivey insisted the perpetrator reaped what he sowed.

“Let there be no doubt, this individual got exact what he deserved. And to those who might be foolish enough out there to ask why we shot him so many times, that answer is simple…because evil can never be dead enough,” said Ivey.

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