SANFORD, Fla. — Sanford police are still hunting for the man who they say shot one of their officers late Thursday night. Investigators believe they found the gun.
ON THE SCENE: Images Outside Complex RAW INTERVIEW: Sanford Police Describe Officer Shooting
Police say Officer Brandon Worrall tried to question a suspicious person at Cedar Creek Apartments on Hartwell Avenue, just west of 17-92 (see map), but the man opened fire.
Brandon Worrall 060410 Officer Brandon Worrall Officer Worrall survived the shooting and is being treated at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Officers believe the suspect is in the Sanford area and, with the help of tips from Crimeline, they are confident he will be caught. Late Friday night police released a sketch of the gunman. That is optimism that residents of the Cedar Creek Apartments are glad to hear after the terrifying shooting outside their front doors.
Crimeline signs have been put up all around the area.
The incident marks the first time a Sanford police officer has been hit by a criminal's bullet in 20 years.
By morning light, the Cedar Creek Apartments were swarmed with Sanford police cars. But it was nothing compared to the sea of red and blue lights along 25th Street around 11:00 Thursday night, minutes after one of Sanford police's own was rushed to the hospital with a bullet wound.
"I was kind of panicking because I had my 7-year-old in the house," Cedar Creek resident Denise Hanson said.
Police said they were first called by the complex's security guard to check out a suspicious guy wandering around. But, as Officer Worrall approached, the man fired two shots, hitting him both times.
"If you're going to shoot at a cop, you don't have any respect for anybody. So that's pretty scary," Cedar Creek property manager Jessica Huffstutler said.
Officials say law enforcement from Casselberry to Volusia County rushed to the scene in response to the shooting. Even in the darkness, they combed the woods nearby where search dogs found the suspect's .38-caliber gun and his hat. The brush was so thick that police had to use machetes to get through.
Police also searched apartments.
"They checked this whole property from top to bottom. They checked the surrounding areas from top to bottom," Huffstutler said.
Friday morning, SWAT searched Millennium Middle School, Wicklow Elementary and Seminole High School, which all opened as scheduled. However, police said they operated under Code Yellow; students stayed in their classrooms and there was additional police presence around the schools.
"I was a little uncomfortable with it and afraid," parent Edwin Ruiz said.
By Friday afternoon, the active search had ended.
However, even though police scaled back the search, they were still looking in the heavily-wooded area near the apartment complex.
"Now, we have a relatively significant group of investigators, people in plain clothes who are working the same areas. Reward money often lures callers with valuable information," said Lt. James McAuliffe, Sanford Police Department.
Investigators describe the suspect as a light-skinned black man with facial hair who's a little over six-feet-tall and was wearing a black shirt. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS.
As for the suspicious person call that brought Officer Worrall to the complex, they're very common. Sanford police said they may get as many as a dozen a day citywide.
OFFICER WORRALL'S CONDITION
Officer Brandon Worrall was released from Orlando Regional Medical Center Friday night. He was wearing a bulletproof vest, but the bullet hit him on a part of his body that was unprotected.
A flood of relatives, friends and fellow officers came to visit Worrall all morning; he's now in a private room recovering from the shooting.
"He did everything right, but unfortunately we had a bad guy out there and managed to get off a couple of shots on him," said Sanford police Chief Brian Tooley. "All things considered, he seems to be doing OK."
Worrall may have been struck by two bullets; one shot appears to have gone right through his shoulder and a second broke a rib and bruised one of his lungs, but was stopped by his bulletproof vest.
"He's fortunate he was wearing a vest that protected him, we think. He's got some injuries, but he's in good condition," Tooley said.
Worrall had only been working the streets of Sanford alone for a few weeks, having just joined the force six months ago. He had previously worked for the Daytona Beach Police Department.
Within hours of the shooting, he was able to describe what happened from his hospital bed.
"He gave us a pretty good accounting of it. Our investigators were able to debrief him a little bit, so they got a pretty good idea what happened," Tooley said. "You grow attached to these guys. They're like your family."
WFTV
