FORT MYERS, Fla. – Florida sheriffs who attended a convention this week with an inflamed colleague with COVID-19 met Friday afternoon with President Donald Trump.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood reported his positive test just hours before more than a dozen other sheriffs stood with Trump on the Tampa International Airport tarmac.
Chitwood attended the Florida Sheriff’s Association convention earlier this week in Bonita Springs. Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and law enforcement officials from across the state also participated in the convention.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, who hosted the convention and whose signature Bonita Springs manages, defended Trump along with 14 other bailiffs as Trump congratulated them and announced that he had won “dozens” of his approvals. Neither Trump nor the marshals wore masks. Two of the bailiffs said they were temporarily screened for COVID-19 before meeting with Trump.
Trump spoke around 4 p.m. after exiting Air Force One and vowed to support the sheriffs amid calls for police reform in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
“As long as I’m president, I’ll never burn your cop,” Trump said with a line of sheriffs.
DeSantis had attended this week’s convention but not on the track on Friday. However, he scheduled to attend a roundtable Friday on the preparation of the typhoon with Trump. Cody McCloud, spokesman for the governor’s office, said DeSantis took quarantine precautions seriously at the convention, but there’s no indication that he interacted with Chitwood there.
Nanette Schimpf, spokesman for the Florida Sheriff’s Association, showed that Chitwood attended the conference and said many occasions had been canceled.
The agreement estimates that an average of another 530 people attend the summer conference, which is one of their most important events. But because of the pandemic, this year was much smaller.
“As this is a smaller business meeting, it was shortened and the turnout was reduced by 75%,” Schimpf said in one text.
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Chitwood, who was not in Tampa on Friday, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that at the Bonita Springs conference, he interacted with four or five other people on the level and left the occasion after giving his speech.
Chitwood stated that he had voluntarily sat at the back of a giant room and had not approached anyone. He said some other people in the convention hall wore masks, which were optional in the ballroom. But he said there are probably about 12 feet between each user and he is not dressed in a mask there.
It is known how many sheriffs attended the conference, but none reported symptoms, Schimpf said.
“I don’t know who’s in poor health or bad health,” he said.
Schimpf said the occasion of Friday’s crusade is not related to the Florida Sheriff’s Association.
Contribution: Ryan Mills of The News-Press and Naples Daily News, Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon of Florida Today, Carlos Muoz of Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Jim Rosica of USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida Capital Bureau, and Frank Fernandez and Matt Bruce of Daytona Beach Press Room.
Follow Devan Patelvon on Twitter: @DevanJPatel