A deputy sheriff from Florida lost her life in the line of duty while delivering an eviction notice on Friday morning, according to officials.
“With deep sorrow and heavy hearts, we share the news of Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow’s passing. She was tragically killed while serving our community on November 21st, 2025,” the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in Vero Beach announced on social media Friday afternoon.
“Her absence is profoundly felt by each member of our agency and the community she served with dedication,” the statement continued.
Deputy Sweeting-Mashkow, aged 47, had an impressive 25-year tenure with the sheriff’s department, as noted by Sheriff Eric Flowers during a press briefing.
Deputy Terri Sweeting-Mashkow of Indian River County was fatally injured while on duty in Florida on Friday. (Image courtesy of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office)
On the day of the incident, Mashkow was at a residence in Bermuda Club, a gated community in Vero Beach, where she was facilitating an eviction for a mother against her son, 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.
