Officer Gregory J. Sorenson

Gregory J. Sorenson

Officer Gregory Sorenson succumbed to injuries sustained 18 months earlier when he was dragged by a car driven by a man he was attempting to arrest for drug dealing in Daytona Beach.

He was off duty at the time, and the managers of a club at 400 Broadway requested his help with a disturbance in the parking lot at 2:45 a.m. As he was checking the IDs of the men who waved a gun at the bouncers, one of the men reached down in the car, and Officer Sorenson grabbed him to defend himself. The driver sped away while Officer Sorenson was still struggling with the subject. The driver reached speeds of 80 miles per hour when one of the subjects pried him off the window. He suffered massive head and chest injuries and was in a coma until his death in July 1982.

The suspects were acquitted of assault and never charged with his murder.

Officer Sorenson was a United States Army Vietnam War Purple Heart veteran, having been shot in the face. He served with the Daytona Beach Police Department for 12 years. He was survived by his wife and son.