Fallen law enforcement officers honored in Bradenton

Jeffrey Young was doing what he did best on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 1987.

Young, one of Manatee County Sheriff Col. Rick Wells’ first field training officers during his years as a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, had a knack for finding drugs during a traffic stop. On the day he was shot and killed, during a traffic stop on Interstate 75, Young had located a large amount of cocaine and the suspect had decided he wasn’t going to jail.

“None of us were emotionally prepared to hear that Jeff was gone, but we wanted to be involved in the search for the person that murdered our friend, and no one was going to keep us away,” Wells recalled Thursday.

Officers captured Young’s killer that night after hours of searching the marsh east of what is now the Jeffrey Young Bridge over the Manatee River.

It has been 29 years since Young’s death, but Wells could recall the days surrounding his death as he became emotional speaking of the fellow law enforcement officer he had called friend. A few hundred people. including law enforcement officers, public officials and members of the legal community. gathered outside the Manatee County Judicial Center Thursday morning to honor fallen law enforcement officers in Manatee County.

Wells also shared the loss he experienced when FHP Sgt. Nicholas G. Sottile was shot and killed in Highlands County in 2007.

“Their deaths changed the world as I knew it, so I am thankful to have the opportunity to honor my two friends here today,” Wells said.

Those honored at the annual memorial included:

▪  Officers Carl Cox and Steve Bennett, Bradenton Police Department.

▪  Sgt. John Baxter and Trooper Jeffrey Young, Florida Highway Patrol.

▪  Constables Shirley Dewey Smith and Barnie Cumbia.

▪  Detective Herbert Grimes, Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

▪  Marshal Joe Terry, city of Palmetto.

Wells delivered this year’s keynote speech with sincere and heartfelt emotion as he spoke often through tears of Young and Sottile.

“The memory of my two friends will remain with me forever, and I can tell you the world is a little colder without them,” Wells said.

Wells shared an important lesson he learned the first time he got in Young’s patrol car, when he was asked where his tactical vest was.

“I politely told him it was inside my apartment,” said Wells, who is running for sheriff. “He politely told me to go get and he told me to never get into his vehicle again without wearing that vest.”

Well never forgot those words of wisdom from his mentor.

“And from that day forward,” he said, “I have always worn my vest while in uniform.”

Sheriff Brad Steube, set to retire when his term ends in January 2017, acted as master of ceremonies for the last time at the annual memorial.

Steube choked up with tears as he thanked those “who’d given the ultimate sacrifice,” before asking that honor guard and all personnel be dismissed, a fitting end to the memorial.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Fallen law enforcement officers honored in Bradenton."