An apparently mentally-ill man drove a car directly into a sheriff deputy’s patrol car on Tuesday, killing a deputy who was just one shift away from retirement, USA Today reports.

Cpl. Brian LaVigne, 54, was one of a number of law enforcement officers responding to a call of a man throwing furniture and clothing off his apartment balcony.  Although the man, 28-year-old Travis Zachary Gabriel Garrett, was exhibiting disturbing behavior, responding officers determined no crime had been committed and left the scene.

A little while later, neighbors reported Garrett was walking naked outside and throwing food at neighbors.  When officers approached Garrett, he jumped in a car and burst through a gate at the back of the community, accelerating before t-boning directly into the driver’s side door of the car in which LaVigne was sitting. 

“He had never hit the brakes,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said. “There were no skid marks. He was intentionally running that car into the corporal’s car.”

The damage was so severe to LaVigne’s patrol car that it took emergency crews using rescue equipment to free the unconscious officer.  He was pronounced dead at the hospital later that day.

LaVigne’s last shift was scheduled for Wednesday.  He leaves behind a wife and two children  “You could only imagine the pain they’re going through being only one shift away from retirement,” Chronister said.