The Lakeland Police Department has issued a silver alert for retired Deputy Police Chief Clarence Grier. He was last seen around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday leaving a residence on west 8th Street. His 1998 Ford F-150 with tag #ID49LX was spotted north of Ocala early this morning. Grier, 82, suffers from dementia, according to his family. If you have any information on Mr. Grier’s whereabouts, please call 863.834.6900.
Hundreds showed up to pay final respects today to LPD Officer Ken Foley, who died of natural causes while on duty last week at age 57.
ALSO: WFLA Coverage | Video: Funeral Service
Polk County’s 11th confirmed rabies case this year involved a raccoon that got into a fight with a homeowner’s pet dachshund on Towering Pine Drives in the Christina area, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. More
Officer Ken Foley, 57, was found unresponsive in his patrol car parked outside the Hampton Inn on Socrum Loop Road on Wednesday night and taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Lakeland Police say. Detectives said the 29-year LPD employee suffered a medical episode.
VIDEO: Chief Ruben Garcia remembers Foley in a news conference.
Three children inside a home day care and a driver were injured around 5 p.m. today when the elderly driver pushed the wrong button in her car and crashed into a house near Seventh Street, the Lakeland Fire Department reports. Identities have not been released; all four were reported in stable condition.
ALSO: In south Lakeland, a pickup truck that apparently missed a curve on Handley Boulevard early Saturday plowed through a yard and damaged three parked vehicles, pushing one of them into the laundry room. Fox 13 reports.
Polk fire crews spent the night fighting a fire that broke out at Southern Softwoods in Eaton Park before 11 p.m. The plant on Lasso Lane is just north of the Polk Parkway, and smoke could be seen a few miles away, Bay News 9’s Jorja Roman reports.
10 News: Fire is still burning (7:37 a.m. report)
Residents and businesses affected by the tornadoes spawned by Tropical Storm Nestor on Oct. 18 can now apply for low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Polk County Emergency Management has announced. More
The mother of a young woman shot and killed by Polk sheriff’s deputies in north Lakeland this week says her daughter didn’t have to die. Deputies said they shot because Sidney Alexis Renew, 20, was trying to run them down with a stolen pickup truck. But Ohio resident Heather Renew says they could have shot the tires out and questions why one of the wounds was to the side of her 20-year-old daughter’s head if the deputies were shooting from in front of the truck.
