**Speaker Identification**  
Speaker 1 – Host: Chip DeBlock (primary host who introduces topics, reads news, and interacts with the audience and guest).  
Speaker 2 – Guest: Scott Steyer (former Green Beret Delta Force operative providing commentary).

Welcome to Leo Roundtable at LeoRoundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock and I am your host for a group of law enforcement professionals that talk about today’s news and issues from a law enforcement perspective.  

And yes, you recognize him. Ladies, he is technically single but he is really not. Scott, former Green Beret Delta Force operative, he is taken. You can put your phone number down now, Scott. Thanks for being on the show, Scott. I appreciate it.  

Hey, shout out to our sponsors. Go to Galls.com. We have Complete Technologies.com, our satellite sponsor. You guys are aware that we just got a satellite radio with Westwood One, which is for radio stations. We are trying to make the transition to satellite radio on Sirius XM. I will continue to keep you guys posted. Also we have GunLearn.com, MyMedicare.live, and TwoBells.com. They both are new online stores at LeoRoundtable.com. So please check that out.  

Also a shout out to all the guys that helped make the show possible and are carrying it on their platforms: Brian Burns from the Tampa Free Press, Ray Dietrich from Alaman.com, and Travis Shach with LawOfficer.com. Thank you guys.  

Scott Steyer and I have been doing this. Scott wants me to give out how best to listen to the show. If this is a podcast platform, guys, we are going to be on it, especially Spotify and Apple iTunes, the two top ones. Also we are on social media: Rumble, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter (formerly X), True Social. We are all over the place. The best thing to do is go to LeoRoundtable.com. On the top menu bar you can see how to watch the show, whether it is TV, radio, social media, or podcast. It has all the outlets we are on, dates and times we appear, the station numbers if it is radio so that you can dial in. All that information is at LeoRoundtable.com.  

So what in the world are we going to be talking about today? Here is the lineup of topics. We have an explosive device and eight hostages and a 14-hour standoff inside a deadly bank situation in Bakersfield. And yeah, we are talking about California.  

We have a Haines City Police Officer arrested in Polk County, where our buddy Grady Judd is at, for stealing over $10,000 from a dead man. I hate to cover stories like this, but it is a bad cop. No one hates bad cops worse than good cops, so we are going to cover it.  

We have Grand Rapids Police fatally shooting a suspect who threw a Molotov cocktail at police and lit the car on fire and stabbed a police canine repeatedly. We have an officer arrested after allegedly pointing a firearm at a fellow cop over a microwaved fish. I will let you guys wait to find out whether the fish was alive or dead when it got microwaved.  

Also we have two interesting videos. They are both involving females coming out of bathrooms and they are deadly shootings. The first is body cam: Miami-Dade deputy fatally shoots a woman armed with a knife. And then we have the Louisville, Kentucky Police Department body cam that really shows another woman holding a glass object, a sharp object, coming out of the bathroom in a mental health crisis as well. And we have time to get to it.  

SCOTUS, the Supreme Court of the United States, claims that here is a qualified immunity case so this Michigan officer can be sued over a use of force issue civilly. And then finally, an Ohio Police Chief who visited the Cincinnati Public Schools while claiming to be with ICE ended up being fired. I have been wanting to cover that, but I pretty much spilled the beans. There is really not a lot extra in that. She went around to these schools out of her jurisdiction with another cop who threw her under the bus when he got questioned. So I do not know if there is much more to talk about. That is the way they roll in Ohio.  

Speaker 1 – Host: rvmnews.com which stands for Red Voice Media. Explosive device, eight hostages, 14 hours inside the deadly bank standoff in Bakersfield, California. Yeah, this has been on the news guys. And so, you know, we are living in different times now, even in California.  

A terrifying 14-hour standoff in Bakersfield, California came to a deadly end with the FBI. They got involved, which is a good thing. They shot a man who had taken several people hostage inside an office building. So I say the FBI, it is a good thing they got involved because we still would have California law enforcement officers there and they would be still using less lethal to deal with this guy. So the FBI showed up to take care of business.  

This confrontation began after a bomb threat was reported at a downtown Chase bank complex. And it also houses local school district offices. According to Bakersfield police, this guy barricaded himself inside with multiple hostages and negotiators were working around the clock to try to bring the situation under control. Two individuals were released during the negotiations. Eventually all the hostages were freed without injuries before the suspect was taken down in what authorities called an officer-involved shooting involving FBI personnel.  

Law enforcement officials had been on high alert throughout the night as the bomb threat raised fears of a broader attack because they just did not know. The FBI and local authorities treated the case as a potential terror threat and also a critical hostage rescue mission.  

My notes in parentheses: great training. I will tell you, we have gone through so many that, you know, look, I know it is a live scenario, but it is great. It really is great training. You have got local law enforcement working with a federal agency like the FBI and it culminated in a fantastic, great ending because we had no hostages getting injured or killed. So it really is great training. Here we are talking about it now on today’s show and we are still getting the training benefit from it. So guys, just be prepared.  

It talks about how the armed suspect tragically refused to repeat a command to surrender and was ultimately engaged by law enforcement. So he is responsible for his own tragic end.  

Speaker 2 – Guest: Do you know if that was the HRT guys?  

Speaker 1 – Host: I do not. I do not think so. Yeah, because I just did not say. Those guys, that is one of their specialties and they are really good. But yeah, overall, without knowing a lot of details that are left out as far as the actual actions on, but hey, in result it worked out. They were patient. I mean, I guess the thing is with that is you have to be ready to go as soon as you show up because when there is a hostage situation, you are on the hostage taker’s timeline. So you do not have the comfort of being able to pick and choose. But I am going to make the assumption that based on the intel that they were getting, there was no immediate threat and they were negotiating and it seemed to work out. And it took a long time, but at the end of the day it worked out perfect. They eventually made entry and were able to eliminate the threat. So I think overall in hindsight, great job with everybody involved. And it is like you said, the communication between the two. I am just curious. I would like to know if it was HRT or if it was like a regional SWAT team. But it is probably regional because if they got on scene quickly, it probably was, would be my assumption.  

Speaker 1 – Host: Well, it would make more sense. You know, it is really the more good things to happen for the FBI after all the stuff they have gone through. Not that they have not unduly gone through it. They deserved everything that they got, but they have been purging bad guys at the FBI, which I hate to even say that. If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have said lose the acronym at FBI. It is like forever ruined. And when you either come up with a new name, a new three-letter acronym for that agency, because FBI is like toast. It seems like when you lower the standards, when you let in a certain type of person because of political beliefs and stuff like that, and then you let DEI be your driving force of who gets hired. In a situation like that, there are certain jobs that are so critical, it should be only the most qualified that get the position. It does not matter on race, gender or anything. It is who is the best qualified. This is a very important job. Lives are at stake. They have to make very fast, very important decisions quickly and react to them quickly and precisely. So you want the best person. But I think in the past they kind of put that aside and did more of the DEI thing and it just created this culture. But now it seems like it is turning around and people are starting to have more faith in the system now.  

Over on Rumble, MVS is over there saying that he was taken straight to hell. And he is talking about the bad guy. You know, when he was trying to go by the FBI. I love the way they have salvaged the FBI. I am glad they did not get rid of the acronym. It has been saved by Kash Patel and ultimately President Donald Trump. And Trump, he is the one that suffered a lot because of the FBI. So they kept it. They have salvaged it. It is under Trump 2.0 and they have salvaged the agency.  

It is kind of like, remember how graduating from Harvard used to be really a cool thing. And who wants to say that they graduated from Harvard now, right? These Ivy League schools are not what they used to be. They did it to themselves. They are infected by this woke mind virus and the quality has gone down. So the proof is in the pudding. When you are in mixed company, I do not see people throwing up that Harvard name anymore. And when they do, there are eyebrows that go up. I am telling you.  

And I am a little bit more vocal than most people. As you get older, you become less concerned about what you say. Cops are always like military guys. We are always more about tell it like it is kind of a personality. We appreciate being around other people that if you have a problem with me, just tell me and I will either accept it or live with it or it will not bother me. Or maybe I will change if you bring something. But just tell me. Do not lie to me. We appreciate guys that tell it like it is. Be authentic. Tell me what you are really thinking and then we can get to the heart of a conversation and really get to what we need to talk about. But if you do not tell me or if you are sugarcoating something, then how do I know what your true intentions are? Nothing really happens. Nothing is going to change.  

Speaker 1 – Host: Moving along here, we have an update story. We have a Haines City Police Officer arrested in Polk County for stealing over $10,000 from a dead man. Now they arrested him in Polk County, but he did not work for Polk County. And I am sure Grady Judd would be the first person to point that out.  

A Florida law enforcement officer was arrested on Tuesday after detectives linked him to a string of credit card charges stolen from a dead man. Yeah, we are talking about this. It is going to happen. And we are going to talk directly and frankly, aren’t we, Scott? We will be right back. Stick with us.  

[Commercial break – Galls promo]  

Speaker 1 – Host: Welcome back. Leo Roundtable at LeoRoundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock and I am your host, joined by former Green Beret Delta Force operative Scott Steyer. He brings a very unique perspective to the show.  

So we were getting ready to talk about an update story from Haines City: police officer stole credit cards from a dead guy. However, when stuff like this happens and we have a streamer named Renee Rocha Lo that is on right now asking if you think more people have faith in the system now and what plan are you on? So she posted that actually a couple of times. She is watching the show on Facebook. So I will let Scott.  

Speaker 2 – Guest: Well, I mean, maybe not the system. She is talking about the FBI and that. Yeah, I mean, they have got a long ways to go. But I think it is going in a positive direction. They are still got a long ways to go and there are still a lot of unanswered questions and stuff like that. But I think as far as using the FBI to target political opponents, that is the biggest thing. And they are doing everything they can to prevent that from happening again. Because that at the end of the day is horrible.  

Speaker 1 – Host: Yeah, there are senior level people that have been booted out. Trump could have come in and just said we are going to keep this mechanism in place. We are going to go after our opponents. He does not want that. He does not want that to happen for anybody, no matter who is in charge, whether we have a Democrat or Republican. So Renee, I suspect you are leaning more towards liberal news sources that are giving you slanted information. You could argue that Fox has given slanted information that is a little bit more conservative. But when you are talking about things like that, do you really think people have more faith in the system? I can tell you absolutely. And I will tell you even more than that. The majority of the people have more faith in the system. And why do I say that? Because Trump got the popular vote, which means that the majority of the people that voted, the majority over half, voted for Trump. And they are by far ecstatic with what he has been doing in office. So I think the majority of the people, not everybody, but the majority has more faith in the system as I believe that they should. The proof is in the pudding.  

We have got Sharon Cottle. Thanks for watching the show, Wayne. And to go back to that story that I left, it is an update story. Haines City police officer arrested in Polk County for stealing $10,000 from a dead guy.  

A Florida law enforcement officer, they arrested this guy, this cop, on Tuesday after detectives linked him to a string of credit card charges stolen from a dead guy. Jeffrey Ziegler, 24 years old. So he is young, but he has worked at like two or three agencies. He faces multiple felony charges following an identity theft investigation by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.  

The fraudulent spending started back on February 29th, 2024, one day after the victim passed away. Over a two-week period, Ziegler allegedly racked up over $10,000 in unauthorized charges on the deceased guy’s credit cards. That went completely unnoticed for about two years. On December 31st, the family members going through the victim’s mail saw a stack of past due notices on some accounts they were not aware of. The family reported the fraud to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office on January 2nd.  

The breakthrough in the case came when the daughter gave the detectives all text messages from her boyfriend, Ziegler, who was the cop. And the texts detailed his whereabouts at specific times and locations and they matched the timestamps when these purchases with the fraudulent credit card took place.  

Ziegler was working as an detention deputy for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. By the time of the arrest in June, he had changed agencies and was working for the Haines City Police Department in Florida.  

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd expressed disgust over the timeline and nature of the theft. Knowingly stealing from someone who was deceased is just terrible. According to Sheriff Judd, I am not sure what he was thinking, but we are holding him accountable for his criminal behavior. This permanently ends his career in public safety.  

After the arrest, Ziegler is booked into the sheriff’s processing center in charge of criminal use of personal identification of a deceased person, grand theft, fraudulent use of a credit card, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, unlawful possession of personal identification information, all that stuff. Officials with Haines City Police Department confirm that he submitted a letter of resignation effective immediately when he was arrested. If he would not have, they said they would have fired him of course.  

Speaker 2 – Guest: Yeah, they should make an example out of this guy. Anytime somebody who is supposed to be a trusted person in the community like a law enforcement officer ends up doing something illegal, they need to crush him because it is twofold. One, they are criminals and they are ruining the trust we have in the system and people who are supposed to protect us. So it is a good thing they found this guy because who knows what he would have done in the future if he had the opportunity.  

[Commercial break – Complete Technologies promo]  

Speaker 1 – Host: Welcome back. Leo Roundtable at LeoRoundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock and I am your host. We are joined by former Green Beret Delta Force operative Scott Steyer.  

We are talking with some of our streamers. We got Leonardo from New York and Scott and I were talking about distilleries and spirits and stuff like that.  

Speaker 1 – Host: Let us go into our first story with the video component. Grand Rapids police fatally shoot a suspect who threw a Molotov cocktail and stabbed the canine repeatedly.  

Eddie Deans Jr. ended up being shot and killed by Grand Rapids police officers on Saturday afternoon after a confrontation that began with a 911 call from his own mother. It came in as a 911 call from the guy’s mother stated that her son was threatening to kill the whole family and that he was armed with knives. The individual also said that he was going to kill himself if officers arrived.  

The footage shows the officers initially arrived. They were on scene for more than an hour before the situation turned deadly. They established a wide perimeter, evacuated the neighbors, staged medical and fire units and attempted to negotiate with the guy while he remained inside a residence.  

The footage shows Deans exits a residence and then he fronts up on this cruiser and he has got a Molotov cocktail and he throws it and he lights a cruiser up on fire. He goes back inside the house and now he flees out the front door and he attempts to carjack what looked like a female in an SUV at knifepoint and then he tries to force his way into a nearby home.  

Police canine. The guy has got multiple knives and they sent a canine in. In the backyard of this property, Deans starts stabbing the canine and so the canine handler calls the dog off. He is telling the dog to disengage. Officers now, they are going less lethal launcher two more times. When Deans charged at officers with a knife, one officer fired his department-issued weapon and he is struck multiple times, died at the scene.  

Police officers were in the backyard. It is almost like they are bragging. Six officers in the backyard, at least three of them were armed with less lethal options. The guy’s Molotov cocktail tried to light the cops on fire. He tries to carjack with a knife, stabs canine multiple times. And we still got guys with less lethal there. You have got to be freaking kidding me.  

Speaker 2 – Guest: The less lethal thing sounds really good. They are trying to appease basically people who want to protect criminals is what it is. But so they went less lethal. He gets away. He goes back into a house. He goes into a car. At any point after he gets away he goes crazy. Literally, obviously crazy. Molotov cocktail, knives in hands. His mom is calling about him. Gets away. If he would have went into that house and killed the rest of the family or went into a neighbor’s house and killed them, what are you going to say then? There is a neighbor that was directly behind. So you had the cop here, the bad guy, and then behind that person or the bad guy was a neighbor. She was out looking. That is a good reason why you want to make sure that you get your shots on target.  

Speaker 1 – Host: From a law enforcement perspective, they supposedly shut this scene down and they contain, but this guy was not contained. And they made it sound like they knew that he was in the residence, but when he keeps popping out, they should have contained that residence. Him being able to get to the girl for the carjacking.  

[Commercial break – GunLearn promo]  

Speaker 1 – Host: Welcome back. Leo Roundtable at LeoRoundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock and I am your host, joined by former Green Beret Delta Force operative Scott Steyer.  

Speaker 1 – Host: Let us cover the fish in the microwave story. ABC News. Officer arrested after allegedly pointing a firearm at a fellow cop over a microwaved fish. There is a warning. A now former South Carolina cop faces a felony charge after allegedly pointing his department-issued firearm at a fellow officer during a confrontation about a microwaved fish, according to authorities and an arrest warrant.  

Michael DeBose, 46 years old. He is our cop, arrested on Tuesday, charged with pointing and presenting a firearm at a person according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division which did the investigation.  

The confrontation allegedly occurred on Saturday in a briefing room at Myrtle Beach Police Department. DeBose allegedly in front of the fellow officer who was warming up his fish in the microwave, but it caused the whole office to fill up with the odor. During the confrontation, the detective allegedly drew and pointed his department-issued handgun at the other officer. Both officers provided statements according to the arrest warrant and the other officer was not publicly identified.  

Our cop was immediately placed on administrative leave by Myrtle Beach Police Department and they recently separated employment with this guy. So they fired this dude. So yeah, and felony. This guy is going to be in a world of hurt.  

Speaker 2 – Guest: That is pretty crazy. I mean, I had no idea because I was thinking it was not maybe in a police station. But like literally it was like a lunch break. And he did not like the smell of fish. And so he is like throw that with a gun. That is crazy. That guy does not need to have a gun on and have a license to carry a gun or be in a position to arrest people or be in a position of authority. That is crazy.  

Speaker 1 – Host: Rumble.com This is Better. We are going to take both of these stories. First one: body cam Miami-Dade deputy fatally shoots a woman armed with a knife. Deputies respond to a 911 call. Someone said their mother was locked in the bathroom and possibly harmed herself with a knife. The woman is 52-year-old Karen Yvette Gomez. She is still in the locked bathroom. Gomez said that she had cut herself but she refused to open the door for deputies, telling them to break it. After several minutes they kicked in the door and Gomez started walking towards a deputy with a knife raised above her head. They said drop it, drop it. One deputy deploys a taser, of course, and at that point the other deputy partner’s service weapon. She was shot twice. She had self-inflicted cuts on both of her wrists. Taken to the hospital, later died. The 12-inch knife was recovered from the scene.  

And the other one, Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville Metro police officers, mental health call again. Caitlin Hall’s family calls police and they say that she locked herself in the bathroom showing signs of suicidal distress. Family tells her that she cut her wrist and she ingested cleaning products. Officers end up firing shots. Officer Blake Robert Baker was the first to arrive. His camera footage, 13 minutes long. He is calling to her, talking to her on the other side of the bathroom door, called for backup. She makes audible comments talking about suicide. She also said she would kill anyone trying to save her.  

Fire officials break the lock on the door but they cannot get in because she is blocking it. Less than a minute later, firefighters break the hinges on the door. Then she exits and she has got a large piece of broken porcelain. She charged at police and they fire multiple shots. Officers had tasers but they ended up not being used for this.  

Speaker 2 – Guest: This is a question for you. Is it where if there is an officer that is on less lethal, there is also going to be an officer that is on lethal? Tactically, if you have a lethal situation, someone that has got the capability to inflict great bodily injury or harm, you need to have lethal as the primary. If you have one officer there, lethal is the only choice. If you have one or two guys that are lethal and you have a backup for less lethal in case it does not work, you have always got one or two lethals. I would rather have two lethals and one less lethal. That way if you have a gun that malfunctions or you have a guy that steps back because he is being charged and he falls down, you still got someone with lethal that can protect that guy.  

Speaker 1 – Host: Scott Steyer, excellent show. Thank you so much for being here. A shout out to our sponsors Galls.com, Complete Technologies.com, GunLearn.com, MyMedicare.live, TwoBells.com. Thanks for watching guys. We will see you back Monday live 12 noon Eastern.