Florida officer shot in face during service call tied to mental health dispute; suspect killed

A Port St. Lucie police officer was shot in the face while responding to a service call Monday evening, authorities said.

Six officers arrived at the home that was the source of the call at the 11000 block of SW Lake Park Drive around 6 p.m.

Within a minute of their arrival, the officers were met by an adult male holding an assault rifle outside the home. The suspect exchanged gunfire with the officers and was shot dead, Police Chief Leo Niemczyk said.

Niemczyk identified the injured officer as Sgt. Erik LeVasseur, a 27-year veteran of the department. None of the other officers who responded to the home were injured, Niemczyk said.

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Though details are still preliminary, Niemczyk said that the incident stemmed from a neighbor dispute involving a mental health call.

"It’s the notification that you just dread every day, but it’s always in the back of your mind, as a police chief, as a leader in law enforcement. It’s something that you’re always very aware of, afraid of, concerned for, and then it happens," Niemczyk said.

Sgt. LeVasseur was taken to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce and remains in surgery.

"We’re very optimistic for his prognosis. And at this time, we’re just asking for prayers," Niemczyk said.

An investigation is ongoing.

Trump warns Honduras of ‘hell to pay’ if election count changes, presses officials to finish tally

President Donald Trump threw himself in the middle of Honduras’ razor-thin presidential race on Monday, warning that there would be "hell to pay" if election officials altered the results.  

Writing on Truth Social, Trump, without offering evidence, accused Honduras of "trying to change the results."

"If they do, there will be hell to pay! The people of Honduras voted in overwhelming numbers on November 30th," Trump said.

The president’s remarks came hours after Ana Paola Hall, president of the National Electoral Council, wrote on X that the preliminary rapid reporting system that began providing results Sunday night had reached its conclusion with votes 57% tallied.

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Their count showed a close race between two conservative candidates, Nasry Asfura of the National Party and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, with Asfura holding a narrow lead of only a few hundred votes. Rixi Moncada, the democratic socialist LIBRE candidate, trailed roughly 20 percentage points behind.  

"It is imperative that the Commission finish counting the Votes," Trump wrote. "Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans must have their Votes counted. Democracy must prevail!"

Officials have said the count would continue but did not specify when updated totals would be released, and parts of the council’s online system appeared to have been taken down.

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Just before the freeze, Trump had endorsed Asfura, calling him the "only Honduran candidate his administration would work with and saying he would fight "narco-communists" alongside the U.S.

Both leading candidates have pointed to the close tally as evidence that they are ahead – though both men have stopped short of declaring victory.

Trump’s announcement that he would pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is now serving a 45-year U.S. sentence – also loomed large over the race, underscoring how U.S. politics can intrude in the country’s politics.

Trump’s latest warning injects new pressure into an already hostile post-election environment. The outcome will determine whether the Latin American country shifts away from the ruling LIBRE party and have deep impacts on its future relationship with Washington.

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