Lake County Deputy Tristan Macomber Resigns After Crash Investigation Reveals Distraction by Inappropriate Phone Use
A Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputy had to resign after an internal investigation revealed that he was looking at inappropriate contents on his cell phone which distracted his attention and he rammed into the back of a stationary car which had stopped for a school bus.
As per an internal investigation report, Deputy Tristan Macomber was driving his Police car southbound on County Road 435 in Sorrento on Nov. 6 when he slammed his car behind a stopped vehicle and the incident was recorded by the body camera.
The impact was so severe that it deployed the steering wheel airbag in Tristan Macomber’s police vehicle. The deputy later told the officials that the vehicle ahead stopped for a school bus with flashing warning lights.
Macomber stated that he tried to stop his vehicle but the brakes on his Police patrol vehicle locked up. He added that the patrol car’s speedometer had just been calibrated and the anti-lock braking system (ABS) warning light has been on since then.
Lake County Deputy Tristan Macomber Resigns
However, after an internal investigation, a different story emerged. Officials reviewed body camera footage for the day after the crash and the report which they released said,
“I was able to observe in the top right of the screen that D/S Macomber was holding what appears to be a cell phone in his right hand.”
NEW: Florida police officer resigns after crashing into a car while watching p-rn 'Gosh darn it. Yep that f**king sucked'
— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) January 11, 2025
Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Tristan Macomber initially claimed his brakes locked up
'Hello ma'am, are you okay? I'm so sorry,' Macomber says to the… pic.twitter.com/woQeJkaLP9
The report further stated that the time interval between Macomber picking up the phone and when his car crashed was one minute. Macomber in a statement has said that he was reading text messages from his colleagues just before the crash.
However, investigators using the body cam footage were able to establish that Macomber was looking at pictures and not text messages. Tristan Macomber’s supervisor also denied that any pictures had been sent in their text chat during that time. Investigators also checked the sector’s group chat which Macomber claimed had the pictures and found the group’s text messages contained no memes or videos.
Tristan Macomber later in an interview with the Office of Professional Standards stated that the information in his original account was false and he was looking at inappropriate pictures on his phone.
