SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – Local law enforcement agencies have reported two separate incidents of people pointing lasers at sheriff’s office helicopters in recent days.
On Sept. 17, Bradenton Police noticed a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office helicopter circling an area in the 900 block of 14th Street West. Officers heard a radio report of someone in the back yard of a nearby home shining a laser multiple times at the aircraft, tracking it as it moved through the sky.
According to a probable cause affidavit, after being directed to the subject’s location, an officer saw a man with a “pen-like object emitting a green laser light” in his hand, pointing it at the helicopter as it circled overhead…