Palm Beach County’s Sheriff is crediting his deputies who work with the homeless for helping to catch the guy accused of stabbing an off-duty deputy this week.
“Because of what we do in the community and the deputies that work in these different communities get to know people, we were able to identify this guy relatively quick.”
Ric Bradshaw says 73-year old Glen Gotell took off in Deputy Willie Hanks’ cruiser after stabbing him in the arm and the side of the chest at a dry cleaners business. But the sheriff credits one of his agency’s programs for being able to locate Gotell.
“This homeless intervention team that we have out there, who deals with all of the homeless countywide (and) works with the county, was able to say ‘Yeah, we’ve seen this guy before because we’ve dealt with him.’ ”
Surveillance video was used to get a picture of the suspect.
“The deputies that work in the area where this happened, one of them says you know I’ve seen this guy. I think he’s a homeless guy.”
Gotell was staying in a nearby homeless camp and deputies questioned others who stay there and they cooperated, saying that Gotell hangs out at the library. That’s where he was found and taken into custody.