Capt. Bierwiler's widow takes comfort in her husband's devotion

Widow of Hernando sheriff's Capt. Bierwiler takes comfort in her husband's devotion
By Dan DeWitt, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, April 2, 2009
SPRING HILL — Angie Bierwiler turned on the television 11 years ago when she first heard that Hank Earl Carr was holed up in a Hernando County convenience store with a hostage after killing his girlfriend's son and three law enforcement officers.

"I see Scott's patrol car pull right up in front of the store,'' she said.

Scott was her husband, Scott Bierwiler, 42, a Hernando sheriff's sergeant. But the situation did not worry her.

"I guess that I felt like everyone else did, that he was going to handle it,'' Mrs. Bierwiler, 40, said. "He just stood out there with a notepad and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and organized the whole county.''

That calm air of authority made Bierwiler seem perfect for the job he'd always wanted and seemed likely to assume one day — Hernando County sheriff.

It also made his death even more shocking.

Bierwiler, by then a captain, finally encountered circumstances he couldn't control at 5:45 a.m. on Feb. 19, just minutes after kissing his sleeping wife on the forehead and leaving their home in a quiet gated community.

On an otherwise empty, two-lane highway, his unmarked Ford was struck head-on by an SUV that veered into his lane. The Florida Highway Patrol has not yet completed its investigation or decided whether to charge the SUV's driver, 16-year-old Andrew Morris.
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Widow of Hernando sheriff's Capt. Bierwiler takes comfort in her husband's devotion