Nearly three weeks after WPTV investigative reporter Katie LaGrone ran a story looking into questionable shootings by the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, she and her husband, WPBF anchor Paul LaGrone, have become the subject of an investigation by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
While this may seem like a coincidence, some are beginning to wonder if the LaGrones are now a target of the Sheriff’s office.
LaGrone’s story, which aired on April 23, was one in a series on WPTV called Line of Fire, looking into how the PBSO investigates shootings involving its own deputies.
According to Gossip Extra, a Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office Deputy named Russell Brinson lives near the LaGrones. The FDCF investigation was launched after “neighbors reported that one of the couple’s two children was routinely left alone to roam the streets.”
Brinson shot a running suspect three times on a Lake Worth street a year ago. The suspect survived but Brinson was singled out by other deputies for brutality toward Hispanic immigrants, and the FBI has been reviewing the incident.
Brinson is still working for PBSO.
A commenter on Gossip Extra’s story story about the link wrote, “This is what happens when you expose the corruption of Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his band of punks at PBSO. I hope that West Palm Beach residents see this for what it is. Retaliation for shedding light on PBSO’s Pattern of excessive and deadly force on unarmed citizens. Stand up and get this guy out of office.”
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has had a tense relationship with the press for the past several years and has shown a pattern of increasing aggressiveness toward reporters and organizations that, he believes, endeavor to portray him in a negative light.
Three years ago, Gossip Extra was tipped off by an insider that a member of Bradshaw’s entourage investigated the background of this website’s employees but couldn’t find anything nefarious.
Here’s LaGrone’s report: