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Welcome to the Polk County Sheriff's Office News Room, where the Public Information Officers (PIO's) post all of the information that they release to the news media. PIO's act as liaisons between news media organizations and the Sheriff's Office. The PIO's routinely release timely and accurate information and Crime Stoppers bulletins, and respond to routine and "breaking news" media inquiries. News releases and Crime Stoppers information can be found on this page.
PCSO's full-time Public Information Officers are Brian Bruchey, Carrie Horstman, and Meghan Petty. The Public Information Officers can be reached by sending an e-mail collectively at PIOs@polksheriff.org.
The recent news releases sent out by the PIOs can be found here, and archived releases (older than 2017) can be found here.
Deputies from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence in the Poinciana area of Kissimmee early Thursday morning, March 19, 2020, and learned that a man there had shot and killed his live-in girlfriend then refused to exit the home.
Family of the 33-year-old victim had not been able to make contact with her or her boyfriend, 38-year-old Jason Ramirez Comas. The victim’s parents went to the couple’s home near Lake Marion Creek Road and Cedar Road, at around 12:50 a.m. to see if she could make contact in person.
Jason was able to see them pull up to the house and called the victim’s mother on the phone. He told her to wait outside for a couple of minutes before coming in and getting the two young children out of the house. She removed both girls from inside, but did not see her daughter or Jason inside.
At around 12:53 a.m., deputies were dispatched to the home in reference to Jason having a gun and he was threatening to kill himself.
When deputies arrived at the home, they were able to communicate with Jason through the door. That is when he told deputies that he shot and killed his girlfriend. Jason also told the deputies that he was a former police officer for the Ponce Police Department in Puerto Rico so he would not harm them, but if they came into the house he would kill himself.
The PCSO SWAT team responded and handled the matter as a hostage scene due to not having confirmation of the victim’s condition at the time. Over the next few hours, SWAT members tried to convince Jason to surrender peacefully.
SWAT first introduced a robot into the home to provide video, and at around 8:30 a.m., they breeched an exterior wall which allowed the deputies to see Jason lying on a bed, deceased, with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The victim was found lying on the floor next to the bed, also deceased.
“At this time, it is unknown how long the victim has been dead. What I can tell you now is that this was a tragic and evil thing that occurred here overnight, and our hearts ache for
the family, and those young girls.”- Grady Judd, Sheriff.
The investigation is in the early stages, and remains ongoing.