by Kris Hauser
“To protect and serve” has been adopted as the motto for most police officers in the United States. This motto has served as a baseline for officers to follow in their everyday dealings with the communities they uphold. Our law-enforcement officials do this to the best of their abilities, and they do so with honor and pride, as they should.
There are countless examples of law-enforcement officials all around the United States who have gone above and sometimes significantly beyond normal, everyday expectations in protecting and serving the public. We want to emphasize one such example in this piece. With mainstream media focusing on everything and anything but the positive, we want to be a light for those who sacrifice so much for our safety and well-being. Every day, our fine men and women in blue go out into their communities not knowing what they will encounter, or if they will come back. But they do it just the same. They do it without expectations, and — most of the time — they do it without any recognition. We want to share a story of one of those brave individuals who works in law enforcement.
Risking Life and Limb for Others
The law-enforcement official I am referring to is a trooper for the Florida Highway Patrol. This particular trooper has not only taken “To protect and serve” quite literally, but she has gone well above and far beyond the hopes that this motto suggests. She put the safety of others before herself without giving it a second thought. It was a selfless act to say the very least.
Florida Trooper Toni Schuck took matters into her own hands, as she knew there was not an alternative. She stood between life and death. The lives of many people were on the line. Her instinct was to protect.
Trooper Schuck was working for the Skyway 10K, a military benefit run that took place on March 6 of this year. This race is host to over 7,000 runners. The roads on the path to the race were shut down and blocked off with barricades. However, this did not stop or even slow down a suspected drunken driver, who sped through the road closures and past the barricades. It was detected later that the woman driving the vehicle, 52-year-old Kristen Kay Watts of Sarasota, was indeed drunk.
At this time, Trooper Schuck heard a radio call stating that the driver was not stopping. The driver continued to speed past the barriers and law-enforcement officers. At this point runners were getting off the buses, and numerous other runners were already warming up for the race near the Skyway Bridge, which is the starting point of the race. The woman driving the car was heading straight toward the bridge and straight toward the runners. Trooper Schuck was about a half a mile from the starting line, according to an article by Josh Fiallo of the Tampa Bay Times.
Schuck made the decision to turn her eight-passenger Chevy Tahoe around to face the oncoming car. There was another Trooper driving toward it, Schuck said. “I decided to follow and stay back. I knew no one was behind me,” she said.
“In my mind, I think she is going to stop. We have another checkpoint where she’s going to stop.” As it turned out the driver wasn’t going to stop. This was according to a radio transmission.
“I had myself positioned in the middle of the road,” Schuck said. “I’m not trained to do that, it was just instinct.”
The same thought came back to her mind: “I thought if she got past, she would see that truck and stop. If she saw me veer to the left, I thought she would stop.” “In my mind, I’m thinking she’s going to stop. We have another checkpoint she will stop at.”
Unfortunately, that was not the case. The driver kept going. This is when Trooper Schuck slowly veered her Tahoe into the driver’s path. She knew she was the only thing standing in the path of the woman’s car reaching the Skyway Bridge. Schuck said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times that she did not even have time to think about her family or about other head-on crashes that have killed law-enforcement officers in Tampa Bay during similar situations.
The vehicles collided head-on, sending both Schuck and Watts to the hospital with minor injuries. Trooper Schuck’s injuries included a concussion and cuts and scratches to the head, court findings said. According to the article in the Tampa Bay Times, the Highway Patrol did not release the full extent of Schuck’s injuries, citing privacy laws. Watts was treated for minor injuries and then arrested on charges that included DUI involving severe injury, according to court findings.
Watts was three times over the legal limit for drivers, the Highway Patrol said in court filings, and she tested above the legal intoxication limit even six hours after the arrest, Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Sergeant Steve Gaskins said. She was charged with driving under the influence with serious injury, two counts of DUI with property damage, and two counts of reckless driving involving injury and property damage.
Sergeant Gaskins said law enforcement does not believe Watts’ actions were meant to intentionally harm runners. “We don’t know what her mindset was,” Gaskin said. “We know that she was impaired, that’s for sure…. But of course one of the other situations (that was considered) was would this be an intentional act? We didn’t know at the time, we just responded.”
Watts was driving a 2011 BMW 335I, which was going faster than normal considering a drunken driver was behind the wheel, said Schuck, who, as a Highway Patrol Trooper, has specialized in dealing with drunk drivers. She is currently assigned to commercial vehicle enforcement.
Trooper Schuck has been with the Highway Patrol for 26 years and had been assigned to work the race, which turned out to be a blessing. She had been on duty through the night as the starting time drew near. She was definitely in the right place at the right time.
Schuck recalls seeing the runners again as she was taken into an ambulance. “It really overwhelmed me. I’m thankful it was me. I’m thankful she didn’t get past me,” she said.
She noted that things could have turned out much differently if not for her sturdy sport-utility vehicle. She believes her big vehicle helped cushion the blow from the head-on impact. She also said, had she been driving one of the Dodge Charger sedans that troopers also use, things might have been much worse.
Heroism Recognized
The organizers of the race recognize Schuck as saving dozens, if not more, of the over 7,000 runners who were in the midst of gathering for the annual 10-kilometer race over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
Skyway 10K spokesperson James Judge typically provides marketing for the event, but on Sunday morning, he was the final runner to enter the race course. “It was on a whim that I was going to run this thing,” Judge said. “I was the last person to leave the start line, and this happened minutes later.”
At a press conference, Judge thanked Schuck for her actions and presented her with a customized race bib with her badge number and an honorary race medal. “It’s heroic in every aspect of the word,” Judge said. “At that point, there were still probably a couple thousand people on the bridge. A lot of those folks are also law enforcement members or their family members of law enforcement. Our gratitude is extreme.”
Toni Schuck is the mother of two. She is also the wife of a sergeant with the Pasco Sheriff’s Office. Her 24-year-old son is currently serving in the Air Force, and her 20-year-old son is attending the police academy.
They should both be immensely proud of their mother. She acted instinctually and saved countless people from significant injury and death. This brave act was from the heart. This is true of so many of our law enforcement officers; they place others before themselves, without regard to their own safety.
Although Trooper Schuck is hailed by her co-workers and people in the community as a hero, this is not how she sees herself. She was quoted as saying that she was sworn to protect and that is exactly what she did. She may not see herself as a hero, but she is a hero in every sense of the word.
Schuck was awarded the InVest USA Heroism Award for her selfless act of making the decision to crash into the drunken driver’s car and saving runners from injury and death. This is according to Michael Letts, CEO of In-Vest USA, Columbia, South Carolina. In-Vest USA is a nonprofit 501c3 organization helping communities provide much-needed bulletproof vests for their police forces through various programs.
The Highway Florida Patrol also applauds the actions of Trooper Schuck, who was the last line of defense to the Skyway 10K runners.
In these unsettling times, especially where our police officers are concerned, we need to stand united. There are many forces who want to portray our law-enforcement officials as the “enemy.” They want to divide and conquer. We have all heard the famous saying, united we stand, divided we fall; this could not be more accurate. The time to support our men and women in law enforcement is now. It is imperative that we do so.
What if?
The Left is calling for the defunding and even the abolishing of the police. These radical views must be rejected. As we all realize, without law enforcement there will be extremely high criminal activity, unbelievable murder rates, and all-around mass chaos.
Just imagine what would have happened if there were no law-enforcement officials at this event. Many lives would have certainly been lost, and many more would have been injured. The driver of the vehicle would have free rein of the highways and streets. There is no telling how many people’s lives would have been affected by this drunken driver. Not only would the intoxicated driver still have been on the road that day, but she would still be driving today. There is a remarkably high chance that she would continue with drinking and getting into a vehicle to drive. Who would be there to stop her, or anyone else for that matter?
Think about what defunding the police would bring about on a larger level. There would be widespread rioting, looting, destruction, death, and on and on. It would be complete civil unrest. With that unrest, especially in the bigger cities, the law-abiding citizens would move on. They would leave to seek safer areas such as smaller cities and communities, leaving the criminals to have free rein. This is a very disturbing picture.
Law-enforcement officials are essential for maintaining law and order. They protect their communities and the people who live there from those who mean to do harm. They serve their communities and help make them a better place to live and raise a family.
We also want to express our gratitude for Trooper Toni Schuck’s quick thinking and selflessness in the midst of adversity. Her actions went beyond the “call of duty.” Families are still complete because of her persistence and determination in not letting that vehicle get past her, knowing she was going to collide with the other vehicle and not wavering in courage.
The Law Enforcement Charitable Foundation supports our law-enforcement officials across the United States. We stand united with you in a time when division is the “norm.” We pray the citizens of our great country will take off their blinders and open their eyes to the truth. In turn, we will all stand united, and America will once again be the great country we know and love. God Bless each and every one of you!