Two Florida deputies have just been suspended after sharing news of Bob Saget’s tragic death before officials had notified his family. Orange County deputy Emiliano Silva and deputy Steven Reed had violated the ‘dissemination of information directive’ when they each separately leaked details of Saget’s demise to their friends and family, who then posted the very private information on Twitter.
Deputy Silva, who was one of the first responders at the scene after hotel staff at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando entered Saget’s room and discovered him unresponsive, texted his brother about the ‘Full House’ star’s passing while police were still conducting an investigation. Silva’s brother then took to Twitter to share the news with the public.
Two Florida Deputies Suspended After Sharing News Of Bob Saget’s Death Before His Family Was Notified
According to Silva, he was apparently unaware of his brother’s actions until somebody had texted him with screenshots of the tweet forty minutes later. The deputy then told his brother to delete the tweet, which he did, but it had already been spotted by news outlets who began inquiring about Saget.
Deputy Steven Reed was not on the scene during the investigation into Saget’s death but he had received notice of the comedian’s passing from a colleague who was on duty at the time. Reed proceeded to text the information to two of his neighbors who had attended one of Saget’s stand-up comedy shows just a few days prior.
Both instances of deputies informing others of Bob Saget’s passing happened before his wife, Kelly Rizzo, and his three daughters were notified, creating a potentially traumatizing scenario for his family.
Both deputies received 81 hours, or almost two weeks, of suspension from their jobs without pay. “This case highlights how important it is to allow detectives in death investigations the time to ensure next of kin notifications are made before that information is disseminated to the public. The deputies acknowledged their wrongdoing and were disciplined for their actions,” said Orange County Sheriff John Mina in a statement.
Bob Saget was found unresponsive by hotel security staff at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando on January 9 after performing a two-hour comedy show the previous night. The actor had not checked out of his room and his family had not heard from him for several hours, prompting a wellness check to be conducted. Upon entering Saget’s hotel room, he was found tucked into bed and was pronounced dead on the scene.
Several weeks later, an autopsy revealed that Saget had severe head trauma in multiple places that likely was due to an ‘unseen fall backwards’. While nobody knows what truly happened to Saget, it is assumed that he suffered a severe fall in the middle of the night and then crawled back into bed where he then died in his sleep. Bob Saget was 65 years old.
