Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On July 29, Samuel Edgardo Rivera, 44, was shot and killed by Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputies after he reportedly fired on deputies who were attempting to serve a warrant for cocaine possession; the sworn complaint that led to the warrant arose from a traffic stop for a seatbelt violation and was one of three sworn complaints filed against Rivera between September 2023 and January 2024.
Rivera’s interactions with local law enforcement go back to 2007, and by 2016, he had nine felony convictions (five violent) and seven misdemeanor convictions (three violent). He served an 18-month prison sentence for resisting arrest with violence and was released in February 2017. He was arrested in Alachua County in 2022 for an Osceola County child support case, but that was his only appearance in Alachua County court records between 2016 and 2023, other than a lawsuit for defaulting on car payments in 2017 that was dismissed in May 2018 because he could not be located…