Firefighters pulled Kotfila, 30, from his agency-issued Dodge Charger and rushed him to Tampa General Hospital.
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“All of the traffic control devices were in working order showing the ramp closed to westbound traffic”, HCSO spokesman Larry McKinnon said.
Kotifla comes from a long line of law enforcement officers. Kotfila was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where he died of his injuries a short time later. I know the citizens of Hillsborough County – and from all corners of this great nation – join HCSO as we mourn.
McBeth, 31, of Hudson, was heading west in the reversible eastbound lanes of the Expressway early that morning in a GMC Terrain when the Sheriff’s Office said he slammed into Hillsborough sheriff’s Deputy John Kotfila Jr.’s patrol cruiser just west of Interstate 75.
“Serving and protecting-that’s what these men and women do”.
The Sheriff’s Office says Kotfila is the fourth officer to have died in a vehicle crash in 2016 and the first officer fatality from the state of Florida.
“For those of us who know the Kotfila family and knew Deputy Kotfila, it’s not a surprise at all”, Cummings said.
The investigation into the crash remains ongoing.
A Florida law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty will be laid to rest in Falmouth Wednesday.
As a founding member of the agency’s SafetyNet Team, John’s special area of expertise also included the assisting families of missing adults and children with special needs who tend to wander from home.
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The service was scheduled to include a fly-over of helicopters, including two from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, one Pinellas County and one from the Tampa Police Department. His father, John Robert Kotfila Sr.is a Massachusetts State Police sergeant and former Falmouth police officer.
