MARTIN COUNTY − A man accused of opening fire on law enforcement officers March 2 before being wounded by return gunfire was identified as a 72-year-old doctor wanted after sex-related crimes in Colorado, law enforcement officials said March 3.
Thomas Earl Steffens was wanted on a warrant issued Feb. 25 for two counts sexual assault; and single counts each of second-degree assault – strangulation and third-degree assault, sheriff’s officials said.
Steffens, the passenger in a vehicle, reportedly started shooting with a handgun around 8:29 p.m. March 2 after being stopped in the area of 12th Street and Commerce Avenue in Indian River County.
Steffens sustained four gunshot wounds and is expected to survive. He was in HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce the evening of March 3. One U.S. Marshal was struck in the leg and taken to the hospital; law enforcement officials said he’s doing OK. An Indian River County deputy had a minor leg injury, but officials didn’t know if it was from shrapnel or something else.
“The team that was investigating this had constant intel that this suspect had made statements that he was going to go out in a blaze … that he intended to kill law enforcement, that he wasn’t going to be taken alive,” Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said.
Flowers, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek and Marty West, an acting commander of a U.S. Marshals task force, spoke March 3 at the Martin County Sheriff’s Office about the incident.
Budensiek said Steffens is a neurosurgeon suspended last year.
In the Colorado case, Budensiek said Steffens reportedly spoke with a woman at a bar, and the next thing the woman remembered was waking up in Steffens’ house groggy. She saw a light she thought was possibly a recording device over where she was. She was unclothed and believed she’d been sexually assaulted.
Ultimately, Steffens took her back to the establishment where they were earlier and she contacted authorities, who concluded she’d been battered, Budensiek said. Investigators determined Steffens used prescribed medication, drugged the woman and victimized her.
Law enforcement officials searched Steffens’ home and vehicle in Colorado.
“He knew he was being looked at by law enforcement and as a result of that he went on the run,” Budensiek said.
Steffens took a bus and ended up in Fort Pierce, where a woman picked him up.
“The Marshals are pretty good at what they do, and if you rape a lady, if you’re a doctor and you take drugs and you medicate her and rape her, they’re going to find you wherever you are,” Budensiek said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in the United States or not, they’re going to find you, and that’s what they did in this case.”
Deputies were working and operating under federal guidelines as U.S. Marshals.
“These are tip-of-the-spear guys. These are guys that are on my SWAT team,” Flowers said. “These are people that are prepared to handle anything that comes before them, and this guy made the decision that he wanted to shoot at deputies, and we shot back at him.”
Officials said Steffens and the woman who picked him up in Fort Pierce went to dinner and traveled to a Publix where the woman went inside.
“He said multiple things about being an excellent marksman, about having access to high-powered weapons, and of course when the search warrant was executed, he did have multiple high-powered weapons in the house,” Flowers said. “So we take those threats seriously and when we hear that he has an intention, we’re going to treat it that way.”
Flowers said the team waited for a safe location “to conduct a tactical stop of that vehicle.”
When the vehicle was stopped, the woman got out and told investigators that Steffens had a gun.
“There was the initial commands to get out of the car, and then there’s the ‘don’t do it, don’t do it’, and then a first volley of shots where he reaches out and shoots at them, it looks like,” Budensiek said. “Then there’s a lull, more commands, more commands. They’re not sure at that point if it looks like whether he’s coherent or not, but he is.”
Steffens fired back, Budensiek said, and there’s another volley of shots.
Additional steps are taken using non-lethal means to get Steffens out of the vehicle.
“He’s not unconscious during this incident at all,” Budensiek said.
Flowers said when Steffens got out of the vehicle, he remained defiant.
“He was still raising his middle finger at our deputies. He was still actively working against us even though he had been shot four times,” Flowers said. “So this is somebody who did not want to go to jail.”
Budensiek said five officers fired their weapons. A “significant” number of shots were fired.
“You don’t shoot at eight heavily armed, trained law enforcement officers and expect them not to return heavy gunfire,” Budensiek said. “That’s exactly what they’re trained to do. That’s what we expect them to do.”
West said U.S. Marshals have nationwide authority and jurisdiction.
“We go out every day and we’re targeting the worst of the worst, our most violent offenders,” West said. “Our task force partners are our sheriff’s departments, our police departments, our state agencies that we work with.”
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Doctor shot after opening fire on law enforcement officials in Florida
Reporting by Will Greenlee, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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