A Florida family has been accused of trying to lure their neighbours to their deaths as part of an alleged religious plot to eliminate “dark souls,” resulting in the death of a law enforcement officer after he and other deputies entered their home and were ambushed with gunfire.
Three members of the family died in the incident and are believed to have taken their own lives, after shooting multiple police officers and barricading themselves within the home. The only family member still alive is Julie Sulpizio, 48, who was arrested and is being held without bail.
In interviews after the shootout, Julie told police at times that she was God, that God spoke through her and that she was named “Helen, under God’s will.” She said her husband, Michael Sulpizio, was the archangel Michael and it was her job to deliver sinners to him so he could kill them.
Michael is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head along with Julie’s two daughters Savannah Sulpizio, 23, and Cheyenne Sulpizio, 22, at the end of a drawn-out standoff with police.
When officers searched their home, they found stockpiles of weapons, ammunition, survival supplies, anti-government propaganda and bumper sticks and flyers from InfoWars and other podcasts promoting conspiracy theories.
Julie has been charged with the first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, a crime that carries the death sentence in Florida, as well as attempted murder and battery.
Police timeline
“This is going to be a little long, but I need to tell the story,” Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said at the beginning of a news conference on Monday.
Grinnell appeared to struggle through his words at times as he recounted the events of the Friday night gun battle that claimed the life of one of his deputies.
The incident began when the neighbours of the Sulpizio family called 911 to report that Julie was assaulting people and trespassing on their yard. The Sulpizios and their neighbours live in Eustis, a small town northwest of Orlando, Fla.
The caller said Julie had hit his wife, father and others, and that she was “acting religious,” accusing them of “being sinners.”
At around 8 p.m., the first law enforcement officer showed up and Julie told him that her neighbours were “involved in pedophilia.” She said her name is “Helen, under God’s will” and that Julie is in Heaven. She talked about needing to trick Lucifer and claimed that the officer was “one of them.”
The officer also spoke to the neighbours and learned that Julie had been trying to get them to walk over to her house. The neighbours did not trust Julie and refused to go with her.
One of the neighbours then asked Julie if her husband Michael was OK, and she replied that her husband had been the one to send her and referred to him as “my husband, my God.” Julie then tried to convince the neighbours to come with her yet again to her house.
Julie was eventually handcuffed after she tried to approach the officer and made physical contact.
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By 8:10 p.m., another law enforcement officer had shown up and the two officers on the scene walked over to Julie’s house to conduct a welfare check on her husband and children. No one answered but the officers observed three people running around inside the home, as well as two small dogs dead in the front yard.
The two officers called for backup and more units arrived at the home.
At 9:03 p.m., four officers entered the residence through a back door, led by Lake County Master Deputy Bradley Link. The officers first stepped into a laundry room that led to a hallway, connected to the home’s living room.
Link was the first to enter the hallway, and his body-worn camera “captured several frames of what appears to be a male in a black-sleeved shirt or body armour positioned with a rifle on the arm of a couch, waiting to ambush the deputies,” Grinnell said in Monday’s news conference.
Link did not appear to notice the man, believed to be Michael, and was shot multiple times in the back as he tried to move through the hallway. Another officer, Master Deputy Sheriff Harold Howell, was struck in the wrist by the gunfire.
The officers were forced to retreat, but Link remained immobilized in the hallway due to his multiple gunshot wounds. He emptied the chamber of his gun during the firefight and attempted to crawl to cover but was unable to exit the residence. It appears he was shot again after the first round of bullets were exchanged.
Other people in the residence began shooting at the deputies outside and those officers returned fire. Police then requested additional backup.
Howell, who was shot in the wrist, was transported to the hospital with critical injuries.
As more officers arrived at the scene, they tried to negotiate with the people holed up in the Sulpizio home but the suspects refused to stand down. During this time, Link was still trapped in the home and his body camera continued to record audio and video, facing up towards the ceiling.
At 9:24 p.m., a woman’s voice could be heard on the body cam footage as she loaded up a firearm. She yelled: “My King will kill all of you. You are Lucifer’s children.”
At 9:26 p.m., four more officers arrived and they organized a plan to rescue Link from the home. They used a ballistic shield as cover and re-entered through the back door into the laundry room. Immediately, gunfire erupted and the officer holding the shield, Deputy First Class Stefano Gargano, was shot. A high-calibre round had pierced through the shield and struck him.
The three other officers carried Gargano out of the house while being shot at. He was then taken to the hospital in critical condition.
A SWAT team arrived and was getting into position to enter the home when Link’s body camera picked up the sounds of a woman talking about suicide inside the residence. The sounds of firearms being reloaded were also captured.
At 11:02 p.m., two gunshots rang out in quick succession, followed moments later by a third.
The SWAT team entered the home and found two women sitting on the couch with what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head. They were later identified as Julie’s daughters, Savannah and Cheyenne. Their adopted father Michael, Julie’s husband, was also found with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. He still had a faint pulse when police reached him but he later succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.
The SWAT team also recovered Link and took him to an awaiting medical helicopter. He was airlifted to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was 28 years old.
Police searched the Sulpizios’ home and found more than 20 firearms, including high-calibre rifles, pistols and shotguns that appeared to have been “staged” in the living room area. Stockpiles of ammunition were also found there.
Throughout the home were gas masks, body armour, ready-to-eat meals and water supplies, camouflage suits, anti-government propaganda and media promoting conspiracy theories. A detective said they specifically found bumper sticks and flyers from InfoWars and other podcasts.
In interviews after the shootout, Julie told police about her fringe religious beliefs, and how she believes she can visualize people’s souls. She claimed she can tell if a person has a black or white soul and said she was tasked with bringing Michael “dark souls for him to eliminate,” a Lake County detective said at the news conference.
Bill Gladson, the state attorney for Lake County, told reporters that Julie will go before a grand jury within 21 days of her arrest because her charges include the first-degree murder of a police officer. Julie is not accused of being the one to pull the trigger in Link’s death, but in Florida, anyone participating in a felony can be charged with murder if someone dies during the commission of the crime, even if they didn’t personally cause the death.
State attorneys have 45 days to determine whether or not to seek the death penalty for Julie. Authorities noted that it was too soon to speculate about Julie’s mental health or whether she’ll be fit to stand trial.
The two police officers who were injured in Friday’s standoff are still in the hospital as of Monday night. Gargano underwent three surgeries and is now in stable condition. Howell underwent two surgeries and is expected to make a full recovery.
The Lake Country Sheriff’s Office released a statement honouring Link after his death, stating that he “touched the lives of all who were blessed enough to work with him; his contributions and the impact of this loss will not soon be forgotten.”
Link joined the force in 2019 and “quickly became part of our family and faithfully served our citizens with courage and zeal.”
A neighbouring police department in Palm Beach posted a photo of Link on X, formerly Twitter, remembering him as “dedicated public servant.”
“His bravery and commitment to his community will never be forgotten.”
Neighbours of the Sulpizios have since spoken out about the family and violent interactions they had with them.
“I always found them weird. I never really talked to them,” one neighbour told FOX 35 News. “They just give me weird vibes.”
Another resident said that Michael threatened to shoot their brother for riding a go-kart down their street. Michael allegedly said: “Next time I see you riding that thing with your friend, I’m going to put a bullet in both of y’all.”
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