BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Maury Hernandez survived a reckless driver who shot him in the head on Aug. 7, 2007. He lives with paralysis on the left side of his body due to brain damage.
Hernandez was investigating a robbery in Pembroke Park when he started to follow David Maldonado, a motorcyclist who was speeding even though he was a felon on probation.
Hernandez was in a coma and had to undergo several brain surgeries, and he and his family have been struggling to pay for medical bills and other expenses.
“Maury took a bullet to the head for the community, for all of us,” said BSO Deputy Mark Delio, of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 200.
It has been 18 years since the shooting that prompted Hernandez to need care for the rest of his life. He and his supporters are waiting for Florida lawmakers to pass a bill to help him.
“There’s always a risk you could get hurt, or you know, you could not come home, but in Maury’s case, what makes it worse about it is it was a system failure that contributed to it,” Delio said.
Among the bills seeking millions from government agencies for alleged negligence, there is one for $5 million in damages for Hernandez after the Department of Corrections failed to enforce the shooter’s probation.
Maldonado “just like slipped through the cracks where they knew he had a firearm and allowed him to be on the street with that firearm,” Delio said.
Maldonado is serving a life sentence after the shooting. The bill to compensate Hernandez will go forward during the next legislative session on Jan. 13, in Tallahassee.
State Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez filed Florida Senate Bill 10 on July 1. For more information about SB 10: Relief of Maury Hernandez by the Department of Corrections and to track it, visit this page.
Read the 2026 bill
Related stories
- Lawmakers to consider relief bill for deputy who survived a preventable shooting
- $10 million relief bill for BSO deputy shot in the head 16 years ago on the table again
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
