INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The deputy who fatally shot a woman attempting suicide had saved another suicidal woman a few years ago who had her vehicle running in a closed garage, according to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputy Jonathan Lozada shot Susan Teel, 62, at her home July 26 in the 600 block of Carriage Lake Way, Vero Beach, after she lunged at him with a butcher knife, sheriff’s officials previously said. Lozada had responded to an attempted suicide at the home, where Teel was cutting her wrists inside the upstairs bathroom.
The deputy found himself in a similar situation shortly before 6 p.m. Dec. 23, 2013, when he and three other deputies saved a woman who tried to commit suicide in her garage at her home in southern Indian River County, authorities said. But, this call had a very different outcome.
A family member called 911 after a 65-year-old woman indicated she was going to harm herself. Four deputies went to the home, broke a window to the closed garage and found the woman in a running SUV with the windows down, unconscious from carbon monoxide.
Those deputies were Lozada, Matthew Davis, Dane Morris and Tim Crooker. The block number and street for the home was not available.
The woman had family pictures on her lap, officials said. Deputies took her from the vehicle and carried her to the front lawn where she regained consciousness.
She was treated at the scene and then taken to the hospital by ambulance. Lozada, Davis and Morris all felt ill and also were taken to the hospital, where they were later released.
