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Thousands attend memorial for three slain Florida deputies
President-elect Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis join thousands for a West Palm Beach memorial on Dec. 3, 2024, for three Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office deputies killed in a roadside crash in November.
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Thousands of people attended a memorial on Tuesday morning in West Palm Beach, Florida, for three Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office deputies who were killed in a crash nearly two weeks ago.
Deputy Sheriff Ignacio “Dan” Diaz, Deputy Sheriff Ralph “Butch” Waller, and Corporal Luis Paez were struck by a Jeep SUV on Nov. 21 while stopped with their motorcycles on the shoulder of Southern Boulevard, just west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road near Wellington.
Waller and Paez were pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after the crash, while Diaz was in critical condition and underwent surgery at the hospital but later succumbed to his injuries.
President-elect Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis were in attendance, according to Trump’s deputy director of communications Margo Martin, who posted images on X of DeSantis, Trump and Eric Trump at the memorial.
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Deputy Sheriff Ignacio ‘Dan’ Diaz. (PBSO)
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Corporal Luis Paez. (PBSO/ODMP)
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Deputy Sheriff Ralph "Butch" Waller, Jr. (PBSO/ODMP)
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Law enforcement officers head south on State Road 7 on Dec. 3, 2024 during a procession for three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who died last month in a roadside crash. (Damon Higgins/Imagn)
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Law enforcement officers head south on State Road 7 during a procession on Dec. 3, 2024 for three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who died last month in a roadside crash. (Damon Higgins/Imagn)
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Law enforcement officers head south on Dec. 3, 2024 on State Road 7 during a procession for three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who died last month in a roadside crash. (Damon Higgins/Imagn)
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Law enforcement officers ride their motorcycles south along State Road 7 during a procession for three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who died last month in a roadside crash. (Damon Higgins/Imagn)
The American flag hangs above the stage at the iThink Financial Amphitheater at the South Florida Fairgrounds as people gather on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024 for a memorial service for three Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies who died in a crash on Nov. 21 near Wellington, Florida. (Bill Ingram/Imagn)
“You can train the deputies to deal with bad guys, for traffic stops, high speed chases,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a press conference in front of the Fallen Officer’s Memorial Wall at PBSO. “There’s no training for this. They never saw it coming. They never had a chance to try and save themselves.”
More than 7,000 people were expected to attend Tuesday’s memorial, he said.
The public memorial was set to take place at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheater in West Palm Beach. The procession was scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m. service, which was expected to end around 2 p.m.
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A glass partition stands in front of the speaker’s podium at the iThink Financial Amphitheater at the South Florida Fairgrounds, where the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is holding a memorial for three deputies who died in a Nov. 21 crash west of Wellington, Florida. (Bill Ingram/Imagn)
Rescue vehicles carry the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies from the motorcycle unit who were struck and killed by a vehicle. The procession carried the deputies to the PBSO morgue on Nov. 21, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Greg Lovett/Palm Beach Post/Imagn)
Rescue vehicles carry the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies from the motorcycle unit who were struck and killed by a vehicle to the morgue on Nov. 21, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Greg Lovett/Palm Beach Post/Imagn)
The three deputies were pulled over to the shoulder on their motorcycles, as one of them appeared to have an issue with his bike, Bradshaw said during a press conference after the crash. A woman driving her SUV down Southern Boulevard came upon a driver who was driving slower than her and veered toward the shoulder to pass but “overcompensated” and struck all three deputies, sending them “airborne,” Bradshaw added.
“People have to take it seriously when you’re driving a vehicle…that’s 2,000 pounds of destruction if it’s not handled properly,” Bradshaw said, adding that the driver is cooperating in the investigation and “feels terrible” about what happened.
The Dec. 3 memorial for Deputy Sheriff Ignacio “Dan” Diaz, Deputy Sheriff Ralph “Butch” Waller, and Corporal Luis Paez, who were struck by a Jeep SUV on Nov. 21 while stopped with their motorcycles on the shoulder of Southern Boulevard, just west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road near Wellington, Florida. (PBSO/X)
Palm Beach County deputies and others gather on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024 at the South Florida Fairgrounds near Royal Palm Beach for a memorial for three deputies who died in a Nov. 21 crash west of Wellington, Florida. (Bill Ingram/Palm Beach Post)
People watch along State Road 7 on Dec. 3, 2024 as a procession passes by for three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who died last month in a roadside crash. (Damon Higgins/Imagn)
Diaz, 51, joined PBSO in 2004 and had been with the agency’s motor unit for more than 10 years, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Paez, 58, worked for more than 36 years with PBSO, starting as a corrections deputy in 1988 before transitioning to road patrol and ultimately serving as a motor deputy for more than 20 years.
Waller, 54, worked in the motor unit for more than 18 years, beginning his law enforcement career with the Royal Palm Beach Police Department before it merged with PBSO in October 2008.
“It never gets easier,” Bradshaw said, discussing the nature of speaking to relatives of slain officers. “When you look in their eyes, you see that pain…and I never get used to it.”
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School Police Major J. McCarthy puts his hand on his heart after a motorcade drove by carrying two Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were struck and killed by a vehicle on Thursday morning on Nov. 21, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Greg Lovett/Palm Beach Post/Imagn)
A police officer salutes on Dec. 3, 2024 as a procession for three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who died last month in a roadside crash passes by on the way to the iThink Financial Amphitheatre on the South Florida Fairgrounds campus. (Damon Higgins/Imagn)
The crash is being investigated as a traffic homicide case, Florida Highway Patrol told WPTV.
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It is unclear if any criminal charges will be filed against the woman who crashed into the deputies, but no charges have been filed against her at this time, the outlet reported.
“When a deputy dies, a piece of the community dies with them,” Bradshaw said.
Mollie Markowitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Email tips to [email protected]. She joined Fox in 2019 and made her way from producing live news coverage to true-crime documentaries at Fox Nation. She has interviewed Ted Bundy survivors, the children of notorious serial killers, survivor Lisa McVey, members of law enforcement and families impacted by traumatic crime.Currently, she covers national crime stories for Fox News Digital. You can follow Mollie on LinkedIn.