Dixie deputy dies in Cross City shooting
Reed, whose funeral will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at First Baptist Church in Cross City, leaves behind a wife and two young sons. Visitation is Saturday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Rick Gooding Funeral Home in Cross City.
The 33-year-old officer was a trained paramedic, emergency service manager and graduate of the FBI Academy.
His death in an area where decades can pass between officers dying in the line of duty was all the more stunning because he was considered a prospective successor to his boss, Sheriff Dewey Hatcher.
"Capt. Reed dedicated his life to serving others and protecting our community. He was a dedicated deputy who we were proud to know and honored to serve with," Hatcher said in a prepared statement. "In his final acts, Captain Reed was exhibiting the selflessness for which he was so well known. He will always be part of the Dixie County Sheriff's Office family. He will never be forgotten.
Hatcher was at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida where Reed was taken by ambulance and helicopter after the shooting just before 5 p.m. He was later pronounced dead.
As Reed’s family prepared to bury him, shooting suspect John Kalisz, 55, remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds at Shands.
The series of events began in Brooksville earlier in the day when four women were shot and the Hernando Sheriff’s office put out a bulletin on Kalisz and the white 1990s Astro work van. Two of the four women died and the others, including a pregnant teen, was hospitalized. The baby died on Friday.
Kalisz headed north on U.S. Highway 19 out of Hernando into Citrus County and entering Levy at Inglis. After being notified, the Levy County Sheriff’s Office prepared to intercept Kalisz at the Otter Creek bridge. But he was ahead of the bulletin as they received word that the van was spotted by the Suwannee River bridge at Fanning Springs.
Officers from state, county and local agencies swarmed through Chiefland dodging end-of-workday traffic as they headed into Dixie.
Dixie County and Cross City officers took up the chase. At County Road 315 and U.S. 19 Kalisz made a U-turn and pulled into the middle of three islands at the corner BP gas station.
Dixie and Cross City officers blocked the van and that is when the shooting began, according to officers.
When it was over, Reed was transported by ambulance to a helicopter that took him to Shands, and Kalisz was minutes behind in a second unit and helicopter.
The BP station was literally surrounded by yellow police tape, cars with blinking red and blue lights, and law enforcement officers from Levy, Dixie and Gilchrist counties, Cross City and Chiefland, U.S. Marshals, Florida Highway Patrol, Fish and Wildlife Commission, and Emergency Management. Many waited throughout the evening for word that Reed had pulled through and sharing details of the shooting. At 8:30 p.m. his death was announced, but his name was withheld because his parents had yet to be notified.
A crowd of onlookers gathered across the highway and across the street in the Foodland shopping center. Next to the station, little work was going on in the three repair bays of King’s BP Oil and Tire Service Center.
The Levy County Sheriff’s Office immediately provided a helping hand with forensics officers collecting evidence and taking photographs of the shooting scene, and Capt. Evan Sullivan, the Levy spokesman, serving in place of his counterpart in Dixie, Capt. Reed.
The suspect's gun sat on top of the passenger side of the van while Reed's gun was on the pavement several feet behind the van near a discolored spot of pavement. Liquid from the van's radiator drained in the shooting and it ran down the pavement, under a sheriff's unmarked pickup truck and into the highway.
By 7 p.m. an investigator from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrived with a pen and pad in hand he started looking over the shooting scene that was littered with yellow markers for bullets and evidence. He spoke with the crime scene photographer, and officers, all the while making notes. By 8 p.m. the large black FDLE crime scene van arrived to collect the guns used by all the officers involved in the incident and
The Levy Sheriff's Office has also offered to take over functions of the Dixie County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday so the entire department can attend the funeral.
Reed, who first joined the Dixie Sheriff’s Office in 1998 as a deputy, left the agency and was rehired in 2007 as captain. He supervised several areas including D.A.R.E., crime prevention programs, school resource officers and the dive team unit.
While working for the Dixie Department of Emergency Management Reed was elected president of the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association.
He attended Steinhatchee School, graduated from Taylor High School and Lake City Community College.