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A Florida sheriff’s deputy was killed in the line of duty while serving an eviction notice Friday morning, officials said.
“It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow, who was killed in the line of duty on November 21st, 2025 while faithfully serving our community,” the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in Vero Beach wrote on its social media Friday afternoon.
“Her loss is felt deeply by every member of our agency, as well as by the community she served with pride.”
Sweeting-Mashkow, 47, served with the sheriff’s department for 25 years and 16 days, Sheriff Eric Flowers said at a news conference.
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Sweeting-Mashkow had reported to a home at Bermuda Club, a gated community in Vero Beach where a mother was evicting her son, identified as Michael Halberstam.
“What an awful day. Six days before Thanksgiving,” Flowers told reporters.
Once Sweeting-Mashkow, other deputies and a locksmith arrived in the entryway to the home, Halberstam allegedly grabbed a gun and began “indiscriminately firing at our deputies on scene.”
Another deputy was shot in the shoulder and is recovering, and the locksmith is in surgery in critical condition, Flowers said. The suspect is also in critical condition after deputies fired back at him.
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Flowers noted Sweeting-Mashkow’s death was only the second in the line of duty for the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in its 100 years.
Sweeting-Mashkow started her career 25 years ago as a dispatcher, worked for 20 years on patrol and was moved to the legal process civil unit in 2023.
Halberstam has a 2006 narcotics charge and a 2015 misdemeanor assault charge out of Virginia, Flowers said.
He said the department had seven calls this month, mostly from Halberstam’s mother, about him at the residence, leading her to eventually decide to evict him.
The suspect was not on the department’s radar, Flowers said, adding that the eviction duty was a “standard call to service.”
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“The regular duties that our deputies bravely do every day in and out, and today Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow, 25 years of service, 47 years old, gave her life for this community,” he said at the end of the news conference.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier Friday said his office was monitoring the situation after the deputies were shot.
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