Incident: Thursday, September 3, 2026, about 8:30 a.m., Port Orange Police Department headquarters, Volusia County, Florida.
THE CALL
There was no call. She walked in.
Free — the opening chapterUnits Are SurroundedFive shootings in five months between members of the Soboba Indian Reservation and law enforcement in the Hemet area of Riverside County. My story about being in the middle of it. The full book is coming.Read how it starts
On foot, during business hours, into the department’s own public lobby, armed with a handgun. What she was there for is still unknown. The chief said it was too early to say whether she had ever had contact with the department before, or what relationship she had to it.
She stood at the front records window and engaged with civilian staff for several minutes.
WHAT HAPPENED
She produced the handgun and fired one round toward the area where civilian employees were working. It struck no one.
A shooting-in-progress call went out inside the building. Then she walked out.
Officers confronted her outside. The released video carries the commands — drop the gun, drop it, I am going to shoot you. Officers fired as she moved toward the parking lot still holding the firearm. Per the agency, officers ceased fire once the gun was on the ground and fired again when she appeared to reach for it.
Linda Jean Croteau, 71, was struck, transported, and died the next day.
No officers were hurt. No civilian employees were hurt. No bystanders were hurt.
THE BREAKDOWN
This one is eerie, and it is the clearest example I have of how fast something can go sideways with no warning at all.
Start with what it is not. A 71-year-old woman does not walk into a police station during business hours and open fire because she has a plan. This is not normal behavior. There is obviously something going on with her mentally, and this has every mark of a suicide by cop. You do not walk into a station acting like this unless you want to get shot.
And that is the cruel part of it, because the officer still has to deal with it. Knowing why she is doing it does not give him a different set of options.
She had already fired inside the building, toward the area where civilian staff were working. So when she comes out that door still holding the gun, you cannot let her keep walking. You cannot let her stay out there, armed, moving toward a parking lot, until she finally gets what she came for — because on the way to that she can hit one of these officers and kill him. You cannot let her go out into the public and keep going until somebody gives her what she wants.
If a person is determined to make this happen, it is going to happen. That is the hard truth in it. She probably wanted this to be the ending and she got what she wanted, and it is still sad, and none of that changes what the officers were required to do standing in that parking lot.
WHERE IT STANDS
She is dead, so there is no case against her, and none was ever filed.
The shooting has not been ruled on. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement holds the investigation and it is active. No prosecutor, board or review body has cleared, justified or ruled on anything.
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The new book from Ray Dietrich. Five shootings in five months in Riverside County. The full book is coming - read how it starts, free.
This is what really pisses me off… when the public acts like an LEO killing a suspect doesn’t affect them! Even if justified, killing someone stays with you. Too many movies, shows, and video games make it look like it’s no big deal. They make it look cool and this results in a numbness of taking another persons life. Wake up America!