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A 72-year-old doctor, on the run from Colorado, is hospitalized after allegedly engaging law enforcement in a shootout.
Indian River Sheriff Eric Flowers says the deputies who were working as part of the U.S. Marshals Task Force knew what they were getting themselves into.
"The team that was investigating this had constant intel that this suspect had made statements that he was going to go out in a blaze, that he was going to kill multiple law enforcement, I believe the number was three...that he wasn't going to be taken alive."
He says Thomas Earl Steffens, who was wanted for raping a woman back home, was shot four times and injured a Marshal, who is now out of the hospital. An Indian River deputy suffered minor injuries and it's not known if he was shot or had shrapnel strike him.
Steffens will face multiple charges once he's out. He's listed in stable condition on the Treasure Coast.
The suspect will face multiple charges once he's out of the hospital, including the original ones against him for the alleged rape that occurred back in Colorado.
But Sheriff Flowers says he's expected to face more charges, including attempted murder, from his actions on Monday night.
The attempted arrest was made while Steffens and a woman were inside that woman's vehicle and stopped at some train tracks in Vero Beach.
The task force had been following the two since earlier in the evening when they went to a restaurant and were parked at a Publix shopping center.
The woman was asked to get out of the car and did so, telling law enforcement that Steffens was armed and wasn't going to go out without a fight.
He refused orders to get out of the vehicle and then started firing at the deputies and Marshals, who then returned fire. Authorities say five sworn officers in all fired back and Steffens was hit four times.
Steffens is described as a neurosurgeon, who worked for a VA hospital in Colorado but had been suspended last year.
He's accused of using a cocktail of medication to rape his victim. He allegedly got the drugs by writing a prescription for his wife, who was unaware, and then using it for his own purposes.