WAFC Local News – September 02, 2026, 8:06 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. Deputy shot in self-defense. With WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. Henry County Sheriff Steve Whitten played the body cam and dashboard cam footage of the shooting of 33-year-old Edward Young of Lehigh Acres in LaBelle. It showed that he grabbed for a gun and fired several shots before deputies were able to fire shots that killed him. FDLE is still investigating. Whitten says people jumped to conclusions. Within 30 minutes of this going down, there’s people on social media talking about, we’re murderers, we killed an armed man, you know, all this speculation going on. And it aggravates me because these men and women in uniform are good people. They live in our communities and yours, and they grow up and they go to school and they do good. They try to make good choices and they want to help people and they put on the uniform. And these other idiots that are out here that are doing that, they have failed to launch in life. They’re too stupid or ignorant to understand how to make it. They don’t know about history, about our government, about how anything works. They’ve never accomplished anything. Only thing they’re good at is stirring up crap on social media and complaining about everybody else because of their failures in life. They’re investigating threats against the deputies and their families. He says it was a split-second decision and a life-and-death situation happening in seconds. They didn’t show up expecting to have to kill this man, but he put them in that situation. Now, I don’t know why he did it yet. We’re still looking into all this. He may have had mental issues, but let me tell you, we don’t have time to do a mental evaluation when he’s actively shooting at us, trying to kill us. He will not release the names of the deputies, although they are placed on administrative leave with pay. One of the reasons I won’t is because of the threats. So, we’ve got some other things going on right now with that, some other investigations. But their lives are not, let me tell you this, now, and this is in writing, not only their lives, but they’re threatening to kill their wives and their children. This is in print, and this is what I’m talking about. So, I’m not releasing their names right now. I’m going to do everything I can to keep their names concealed for as long as I can on this. The Hendry County School Board learned 831 students in the county are receiving school-choice scholarships. They expect an increase of 100 more students getting scholarships this year. That’ll cost the district an estimated $7.06 million in state funding. They are expecting $98.7 million in state aid this year. The state enrollment projected at 15,529 students. The base student allocation per student went up just over 2% under the state budget to $8,598 per student. School board members John Baskwin, Stephanie Buesen, and Amanda Nelson were re-elected this year without opposition. A controversial RV park proposed on Williams Road in Ortona will come before the Glades County Commission this month. Kathleen Armbruster is against the RV park. She says it would ruin lives. The building of it is going to be impossible for me to live there. And again, I don’t have the resources to move. This is a very big change in the atmosphere if that type of a business comes in. County Commissioner Jeff Patterson says a Lakeport woman recently called him saying she got a letter in the mail asking for $75 to oppose an Islamic mosque being built in Moorhaven. Patterson says that letter is a scam. It is a scam, but I want everyone to know about it because she’s apparently probably not the only person in Glades County that received it. And she’s an elderly woman in her late 80s and it worries her slap to death. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).