911 Calls Reveal New Particulars in Tommy Lazzaro Looking Accident (Unique)

Almost two months have handed since Sgt. Tommy Lazzaro, a Inexperienced Beret, was fatally shot not removed from his base close to Destin, Fla., and authorities say there’s nonetheless a lot concerning the case they can not affirm.

Not whereas the investigation stays “very lively.”

All the pieces they’ve realized up to now, state officers inform PEOPLE, signifies Lazzaro died in a freak taking pictures accident on the afternoon of Dec. 22 whereas en route to assist his girlfriend’s brother out of a jam.

However investigators with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee are nonetheless digging — although about what, they won’t say.

“We’re inspecting all elements,” says Officer Chris Boley, a spokesman with the fee.

Boley says the shooter, whom different officers have described as a neighborhood of Walton County, Fla., and never a soldier, was questioned and “absolutely cooperated” with FWC however won’t be publicly recognized whereas the case is open.

Boley declined to reply different questions from PEOPLE and mentioned a closing report can be issued sooner or later.

“There’s nonetheless an investigation. I have not been aware of any of the outcomes,” Tom Lazzaro, Tommy’s father, advised PEOPLE in a current interview about his son’s life and legacy. “And so far as I do know, it was a stray bullet from one other looking celebration …. that is all I do know proper now.”

Nevertheless, a evaluate of public information, together with an incident report and two 911 calls obtained by PEOPLE, sheds mild on how the tragedy unfolded: what could have gone mistaken and the way, if not — but — why.

Tommy was a 27-year-old weapons sergeant and former school quarterback from Colorado lower than one 12 months into his service with the seventh Particular Forces Group (Airborne) at Eglin.

On Dec. 22, he was requested to go assist girlfriend Kaley Lynch’s brother, one other active-duty Inexperienced Beret, who had gone looking on the expansive public land round Eglin and gotten caught. 

These roads across the base, corresponding to they’re, could be sandy and wild, troublesome to traverse. So Tommy took his truck to assist. 

His girlfriend’s brother and two associates look like the primary ones to have discovered him after lunchtime that December day, nonetheless sitting in his truck within the open clearings that comply with the facility strains.

They had been additionally the primary ones to name 911 after they seen a bullet had pierced his driver’s aspect door. 

Authorities would later decide that the femoral artery in Tommy’s left leg had been hit.

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Within the 911 calls, the chums discuss attempting to bust by the window of his truck to provide him CPR; they later put a tourniquet on him, one in all them mentioned.

As they had been tending to him (“Come on Tommy ….  come on,” one of many associates says in the course of the calls), they seen an older couple dressed as hunters who got here to the scene however rapidly left. One of many associates requested the dispatcher to take down the couple’s license plate.

The buddy additionally famous to the dispatcher that there was a big group of hunters not far-off: about 10 or 15 vans lined up alongside the highway, in roughly the identical path of Tommy’s automobile.

Different particulars about these individuals and whether or not they had been concerned haven’t been launched. Nobody has been accused of a criminal offense.

Tommy doubtless fell unconscious and died inside minutes after being shot. He didn’t have time to name for assist. 

“It’s heartbreaking. … That is the primary time I’ve ever heard this within the 10 years I’ve been right here,” says Corey Dobridnia, a spokeswoman with the Walton County sheriff, who assisted with preliminary elements of the investigation.

“He went on the market to do his associates a favor, he was being a superb man,” Dobridnia mentioned.

Maj. Patrick Connelly, a spokesman for the seventh, says he’s struck by absolutely the worst timing of the tragedy — a taking pictures outlined by fractions of a second that separated Tommy from being in the correct or mistaken place. 

“It’s a really tight neighborhood, [his death is] going to be felt all throughout the Military,” Connelly says.

Each he and Dobridnia say such incidents are exceedingly uncommon. Whereas the state’s wildlife continues to analyze, it stays unclear what different elements could have contributed to the taking pictures.

An Eglin spokeswoman says that officers there additionally plan to evaluate the total findings from the investigation earlier than making any modifications to the looking land on the bottom that they oversee, together with the vary the place Tommy was in the course of the taking pictures.

In an announcement, the commander of the seventh, Col. Patrick Nelson, mentioned: “We are going to always remember his dedication, braveness, and dedication to safeguarding our freedoms.”