A Florida deputy sheriff tragically lost her life while delivering an eviction notice on Friday morning, according to authorities.

“With immense sorrow and heavy hearts, we share the heartbreaking news of Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow’s death on November 21st, 2025. She was killed in the line of duty while dedicatedly serving our community,” the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in Vero Beach announced on social media Friday afternoon.

The department expressed that her passing has left a profound impact on every member of their team, as well as on the community she proudly served.

Deputy Mashkow, aged 47, had been devoted to the sheriff’s department for 25 years and 16 days, Sheriff Eric Flowers stated during a news conference.

Indian River County Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow was fatally wounded in the line of duty on Friday in Florida. (Indian River County Sheriff’s Office)

Mashkow had reported to a home in Bermuda Club, a gated community in Vero Beach where a mother was evicting her son, identified as Michael Halberstam.  

“What an awful day. Six days before Thanksgiving,” Flowers told reporters.

Once Mashkow, other deputies and a locksmith arrived in the entryway to the home, Halberstam allegedly grabbed a gun and began “indiscriminately firing at our deputies on scene.”

Another deputy was shot in the shoulder and is recovering, and the locksmith is in surgery in critical condition, Flowers said. The suspect is also in critical condition after deputies fired back at him. 

Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers addresses the media Friday following the line-of-duty death of Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow. (Indian River County Sheriff’s Office)

Flowers noted Mashkow’s death was only the second in the line of duty for the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in its 100 years.

Mashkow started her career 25 years ago as a dispatcher, worked for 20 years on patrol and was moved to the legal process civil unit in 2023.

Halberstam has a 2006 narcotics charge and a 2015 misdemeanor assault charge out of Virginia, Flowers said. 

He said the department had seven calls this month, mostly from Halberstam’s mother, about him at the residence, leading her to eventually decide to evict him.

The suspect was not on the department’s radar, Flowers said, adding that the eviction duty was a “standard call to service.”

“The regular duties that our deputies bravely do every day in and out, and today Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow, 25 years of service, 47 years old, gave her life for this community,” he said at the end of the news conference. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier Friday said that his office was monitoring the situation after the deputies were shot.