Services Set For Hillsborough Deputy Killed In Crash

LUTZ, FL — Services have been set for Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Deputy John Katfila Jr.

Kotfila, 30, was killed Saturday when his marked 2013 Dodge Charger crashed head-on with a GMC Terrain driven by Erik Thomas McBeth, 31, of Hudson. The six-year sheriff’s office veteran was a traffic crash investigator and was also a founding member of the agency’s Safety Net Team. That team helps find special needs children and adults who have wandered away from home.

The sheriff’s office say Kotfila had just finished up a crash investigation at Tampa General Hospital and was heading east on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway when calls came in shortly after 2:45 a.m. Saturday about a driver heading west in the expressway’s eastbound lanes.

A witness to the crash, which also killed McBeth, said Kotfila deliberately drove into the path of the oncoming Terrain to prevent the vehicle from striking her car. Sarah Geren was on her way home from work when she encountered the wrong-way driver and watched the tragedy unfold.

“This man put himself in front of us as a human shield,” Geren told WFLA. “He definitely saw what was going on.”

Kotfila’s services have been scheduled for Friday, March 18, at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church, 17512 Lakeshore Road, in Lutz. Open visitation is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with a service to begin at 1. Kotfila will be interred in Massachusetts.

Kotfila came from a law enforcement family. 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 in Massachusetts.

The death is a first for a Florida law enforcement agency in 2016, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

Photo courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office