12-10-2010, 07:40 AM
Deputy Coates just received award the day before he was killed.
ORLANDO SENTINEL
Condolences have been pouring in for a deputy who is being remembered as one of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s finest.
Deputy Brandon Coates died Wednesday night after he was shot in the head during a traffic stop along South Orange Blossom Trial.
Funeral arrangements for Coates could be announced as early as Friday.
In addition to his work with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Coates, 27, served two tours in Iraq with the U.S. Marines, deploying from Tampa.
“He was one of those people that, if you had him in a room, he’d make the best out of any bad situation,” said Peter Nolan, Coates’ friend and fellow Marine.
“He survives Iraq twice, beats the odds two times, and then gets killed on the street defending his own community. It’s terrible,” said Thomas Angarano, another fellow Marine.
Just the day before he was killed, The Sheriff’s Office honored Coates for his involvement in an effort to crack down on gangs in Orange County.
Sheriff Jerry Demings gave Coates an award for his work in “Operation Fallen Cobra,” which led to the arrest of dozens of suspected gang members.
ORLANDO SENTINEL
Condolences have been pouring in for a deputy who is being remembered as one of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s finest.
Deputy Brandon Coates died Wednesday night after he was shot in the head during a traffic stop along South Orange Blossom Trial.
Funeral arrangements for Coates could be announced as early as Friday.
In addition to his work with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Coates, 27, served two tours in Iraq with the U.S. Marines, deploying from Tampa.
“He was one of those people that, if you had him in a room, he’d make the best out of any bad situation,” said Peter Nolan, Coates’ friend and fellow Marine.
“He survives Iraq twice, beats the odds two times, and then gets killed on the street defending his own community. It’s terrible,” said Thomas Angarano, another fellow Marine.
Just the day before he was killed, The Sheriff’s Office honored Coates for his involvement in an effort to crack down on gangs in Orange County.
Sheriff Jerry Demings gave Coates an award for his work in “Operation Fallen Cobra,” which led to the arrest of dozens of suspected gang members.