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.
If lawmakers pass the bill, Delio said it would not only help a veteran who deserves it, but it would also send a supportive message to the law enforcement community.
“That if anything happens to you, you’ll be taken care of,” Delio said. “And if he’s not taken care of, you know, you might have guys in the future say, ‘Well, I don’t want to put myself in that situation!’”
Delio later added BSO deputies will continue to put themselves in harm’s way, while serving the community.
“No one really shies away from it,” Delio said.
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
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