Saint Lucie County-March 24, 2022: Twenty-two year old Cody Colangelo is a 2 year veteran of the Saint Lucie County Sheriff’s Department where his father and older brother also work. Out on patrol Wednesday night about 11 pm he and other officers responded to a roll-over crash in the 12-hundred block on South Indian River Drive. The vehicle was un-occupied when they arrived.
The woman and sole occupant of the car crawled out, relatively unharmed, and walked down the embankment off the road towards the lagoon. Deputy Colangelo found her and was leading her back up the embankment stairs towards the roadway. Chief Deputy Brian Hester describes what the body cam footage showed happened next.
“He's probably 2 stairs behind her and then you just see her turn, and with no words, no nothing, she immediately turns and stabs him," said Chief Deputy Hester during a Thursday morning news conference. Colangelo's neck wound "actually nicked his carotid artery,” said Hester.
Deputy Colangelo managed to draw his weapon and fire one round at the woman, but the shot missed and the woman fled back up to the roadway. Despite his injury, Deputy Colangelo gave pursuit and managed to give instructions to other officers while holding his hand over the wound on his neck. “This was pretty amazing," said Chief Deputy Hester. "When we reviewed the footage to watch one of our deputies who just sustained a life threatening injury, calmed himself down enough, he saved his own life through his training, and then directed other deputies where to go.”
Saint Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara called it yet another example of the dangers faced by law enforcement in the field. “What was a routine call of a traffic accident on Indian River Drive turned into a deadly encounter for him. And I can tell you that by the grace of God and through this deputies training he is alive this morning,” he said.
Colangelo underwent a two-hour surgery during which doctors replaced part of the artery in his neck with one from his leg. He is now in stable condition in the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
21 year old Leigha Michelle Day of Palm Bay is now facing charges of first degree murder of a law enforcement officer.