The call was logged as routine: a mother asking deputies to remove her adult son from her Vero Beach home. Deputy Terri Mashkow, 47, arrived with another deputy and a locksmith, prepared for paperwork and tense words, not an ambush. Investigators say Michael Halberstam suddenly armed himself and opened fire, cutting Mashkow down in seconds and wounding the second deputy and the locksmith before being shot multiple times. He later died in the hospital.
In the days that followed, shock turned to grief. Colleagues stood vigil as Sheriff Eric Flowers promoted her posthumously to sergeant, honoring a woman known for quiet courage and relentless kindness. Her family remembered a devoted mother who helped her community even off duty, a “heart of gold” who loved her dogs and her children fiercely. One ordinary call, one violent eruption, and an entire county is left asking why.
