WATCH: Indian River Sheriff Eric Flowers Provides Details on Fatal Shooting of Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow

Read the full Video Transcription Below

ABOVE VIDEO: Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers provided an update on the fatal shooting of Deputy Terri Sweeting Mashkow. A routine eviction turned tragic Friday morning when gunfire erupted inside a Vero Beach home, leaving Deputy Sweeting dead and two others wounded.

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA — A routine eviction turned tragic Friday morning when gunfire erupted inside a Vero Beach home, leaving one sheriff’s deputy dead and two others wounded, according to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies were serving an eviction notice when the suspect suddenly pulled a gun and opened fire as they entered the residence. The exchange left Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow fatally wounded.

Mashkow, recognized in 2023 for her compassion and service after helping a local family during the holidays, was remembered by the sheriff’s office as a dedicated public servant who embodied the highest ideals of law enforcement.

“She is dedicated to serving her community and exemplifies what the role of a Peace Officer should be,” the office wrote in its report last year.

Below is the complete transcription of Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers’ update on the fatal shooting.

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “For an awful day, six days before Thanksgiving, this morning our sailing unit went out to 1137 Governor’s Way in Bermuda Club, Somerset Bay, to serve an eviction. The resident of the home was evicting her son, a guy named Michael Halberstam, born in 1988.

Our deputies and a locksmith were on scene in an effort to evict him. The court process, court paperwork moved him out of that house. While they were in the entryway, having just made entry into the home, Mr. Halberstam retrieved the weapon. We began indiscriminately firing at our deputies on scene. We had three deputies there. Deputy Tino Oresby has been with us for 25 years. He was shot in the shoulder. He retreated into the garage. I spoke with him, Doc Longwood. He’s recovering from his injury.

Deputy Terri Sweeney Mashkow, 47 years old, 25 years and 16 days of service with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, made the ultimate sacrifice today. She was killed in the line of duty inside that residence. The sergeant was also on scene. He was not injured. He did fire. Deputy Oresby fired. As we continue through the investigation, we’ll know if Deputy Terri Sweeney Mashkow ever fired a weapon or not.

The locksmith that was on scene is currently in surgery, in critical condition. The bad guy is currently in surgery, in critical condition. Our team has been meeting with family members of all these folks to notify them of this awful tragedy. This is the second line of duty death in the last 100 years. This year marks 100 years.

We’ve been wearing this badge this year for 100 years of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office. Today, I have the unfortunate task of telling you that we have the second line of duty death. Terri started her career; she’s 47. Twenty-five years ago, she began as a dispatcher. She worked in patrol for 20 years, and in 2023, she was moved to our legal process civil unit.

Our bad guy has a 2006 narcotics charge and a 2015 misdemeanor assault charge, both out of Virginia. We’ve had seven calls to this residence all this month, nothing before that. Almost all of them were from the mother calling about him and her decision to ultimately evict him. Our real-time crime center has been working on finding more information about this suspect.

They’ve identified some strange posts on social media. We’ve identified that he was fired from UPS, that he made some terrible comments about them, and that he had been posting some negative items about the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office on his Facebook page. This is not someone that was on our radar. This is not somebody that we were actively engaged with. This was a standard call for service. This is the everyday call, the eviction, the regular duties that our deputies bravely do every day, in and out. And today, Deputy Terri Sweeney-Maschkow, with 25 years of service and 47 years old, gave her life for this community. I thought I’d take questions.”

Audience member: “Did any of the deputies fire their weapons at this individual?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “Yes, I can say that the sergeant that was on scene, Deputy Tino Rispi, both fired. Until we conduct our full investigation, I will not be able to tell you whether or not Deputy Terry Sweeney-Maschkow fired a weapon or not.”

Audience member: “Did the gunman have a legal right to own a handgun, or as a convicted felon, he should not have had a gun?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “Through our initial investigation, again, we are very early on in this investigation. We see nothing that would preclude him from having a weapon at this time.”

Audience member: “Yes, please. What is the suspect’s name, and then can you spell it?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “Sure. The suspect’s name in this case is Michael, common spelling, Halberstam, H-A-L-B-E-R-S-T-A-M, born in 88. Again, he is in surgery, in critical condition. Thank you.”

Audience member: “Can we get the female of the deputy’s name to spell it?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “Sure. Terry, T-E-R-R-I, Maschkow, M-A-S-H-K-O-W.”

Audience member: “And what about the locksmith? Are you releasing the locksmith?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “We’re not releasing his name. We have been in contact with his family, but we are not currently releasing his name.”

Audience member: “Why was the mother trying to evict her son?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “We don’t have any details yet.”

Audience member: “The other deputies’ names, could you spell those?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “Tino, T-I-N-O, it’s actually Florentino Arrizpe, A-R-I-Z-P-E.”

Audience member: “The other deputies?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “Sergeant Barlos was on scene. He’s the civil sergeant. He was there on scene. First and first sergeant. Sergeant Gary Barlos was on scene.”

Audience member: “Were they all taken to Longwood?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “Yes, they were taken to Longwood.”

Audience member: “Yes, Sheriff, how often do your deputies encounter confrontation or violence when just doing civil process service?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “You know, they encounter people who are in distress. That’s not unusual. An eviction is a very tense moment. Many times, it’s handled before they ever get there, and it becomes a commonplace call. But on occasion, they do encounter somebody who is in distress, and they have resources, and they work through those things. This is not a situation where a person would ever be expected to start shooting indiscriminately at these deputies, and just a terrible scene out there. Our team is going to be on scene for quite some time. It is a, you know, the entire house is our crime scene.

And of course, as you can imagine, our entire team has been activated. Our S. T. A. R. team, our peer support team, we have local mental health resources helping our team. I want to thank you to all the sheriffs that reached out to me, all the law enforcement leaders, Lieutenant Governor, I’ve heard from pretty much everybody today, and I want to thank them all for their concern, for reaching out to us. Our team, in honor of our team, will be transporting Terri.

And obviously, as we have more information on this case, we will come back and report it, and we’ll put out a motion again as he will.”

Audience member: “The accused shooter, I guess, did he shoot himself as well?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “We’re still very early in the investigation, so I can’t say. I can say that our deputies did fire at him, and he has been struck multiple times. And I’m assuming that it was our deputies that made those shots, but I can’t say for sure.

Audience member: “The investigation was that, and the mom was at the home at the time?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “Mom was outside, so a part of our standard eviction process would be to have anybody else that’s involved go outside of the residence. So she was outside when it all occurred. And so nobody else was in the house except for the shooter. Nobody else except for the shooter was inside of the residence.

Audience member: “What is your overall reaction to this tragic event, Sheriff?”

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers: “I’m absolutely heartbroken. I’ve worked my entire career with Terri, and so has pretty much everybody else at the agency. We don’t have a lot of people who have been there. In all that time, 25 years is a long time. Having called her mom today; Having let her husband know. Absolutely the worst part of being a law enforcement leader I can tell you that our team will feel this forever. Terri was an amazing deputy. She had a beautiful heart, and she will be missed. Thank you, guys. We’ll be back in touch when we have more information. Thank you.”

Audience member: “Thank you, Sheriff.”

Similar Stories