Hillsborough County Honors Deputy John Kotfila Jr.

LUTZ, FL — As members of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said goodbye to one of their own Friday, law enforcement agencies from all over the country turned out to pay their respects to a deputy who is believed to have sacrificed his life to save another.

Deputy John Kotfila Jr., 30, was killed in a line-of-duty crash Saturday, March 12. The wreck happened on the eastbound upper deck of the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway around 2.45 a.m.

Kotfila, the sheriff’s office said, had just finished up an accident investigation at Tampa General Hospital when he encountered a wrong-way driver heading west on the on the expressway’s eastbound lanes.

Witness Sarah Geren said Kotfila put himself in harm’s way to stop the wrong-way driver from striking her car. Kotfila’s 2013 Dodge Charger ultimately crashed head-on with a GMC Terrain driven by Erik Thomas McBeth, 31, of Hudson.

McBeth died at the scene. Kotfila died from his injuries at short time later at Tampa General Hospital.

Services for Kotfila were held Friday at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Lutz. Law enforcement agencies from across the country sent honor guards to pay their respects. Many also expressed their condolences by wearing black bands on their badges in the days leading up to the services. Some also took to social media to share their grief.

Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings traveled to Lutz from Massachusetts for Kotfila’s services.

“It is a brotherhood,” Cummings explained in an interview at the service. “The officers and deputies are out there putting their lives on the line day after day. You go out to every shift and you don’t think about it, but that may be your last shift.”

Friday's service also included a missing man flyover and a last call that went out on sheriff's office radios shortly after 3 p.m.:

All units standby...

Hillsborough Unit 4258 respond...

Hillsborough Unit 4258...

Hillsborough Unit 4258...

Hillsborough to all units, Unit 4258 John Robert Kotfila, Jr. is not responding...

Hillsborough to all units Deputy Kotfila Unit 4258 ...10-7

End of Watch March 12, 2016

May God Bless him and the loved ones he leaves behind.

Kotfila will be interred in Massachusetts. He comes from a law enforcement family with deep roots in that state. His father, Sgt. John Kotfila Sr., is a member of the Massachusetts State Police. His brother, Michael, is an officer with the Plymouth Police Department.

A wake for Kotfila has been scheduled at the Chapman Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, 475 Main St., in Falmouth, Mass., on March 22, from 4 to 8 p.m., according to the Massachusetts State Police. The funeral Mass will be held at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, 511 Main St., in Falmouth on March 23 at 11 a.m. Interment will follow at St Joseph’s Cemetery on Gifford Street in Falmouth.

Family has asked that donations on behalf of Deputy John Kotfila Jr. be made to the Lynn Sowers Memorial Foundation. That organization was founded after the 1995 death of Hillsborough County Deputy Lynn Sowers. It provides financial assistance to sheriff’s office employees who have suffered unforeseen, catastrophic events. To date, the foundation has distributed more than $1 million to employees in need, the agency reported.

To learn more about the Lynn Sowers Foundation, visit its website.

Photos courtesy of the Hillsborough and Citrus County Sheriff’s Offices, and Clearwater and St. Petersburg Police departments

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Law enforcement from across country will be at Kotfila&#39;s funeral. Here&#39;s why support is so important to them. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WTSP?src=hash">#WTSP</a> <a href="https://t.co/NDEHr3HYjP">pic.twitter.com/NDEHr3HYjP</a></p>&mdash; Emerald Morrow (@emeraldmorrow) <a href="https://twitter.com/emeraldmorrow/status/710843855055265793">March 18, 2016</a></blockquote>
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