FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- Personnel files for two Fort Pierce Police Officers involved in a deadly shooting last month were released Thursday, detailing both awards and complaints filed for the officers over the last decade.
Officer Ralph Keith Holmes and Sgt. Brian MacNaught have both worked for the Fort Pierce Police Department for 12 years, and currently are assigned to the community policing bureau.
Both also have military experience.
In Holmes’s file, a his reviews show a consistent history of going beyond the expectations of the job. More than once, he has been awarded life saving awards.
That includes rescuing girls stuck on a Jetty in Fort Pierce in 2014. He was also recognized for rescuing three men from a sinking boat in Fort Pierce and retrieving their boat from the water while working with the marine unit.
His record also shows more than a dozen complaints in his career with the department.
He was put on two-week of unpaid leave in 2004 and ordered to take sexual harassment classes.
Also that year, records show he was given a written reprimand for an unauthorized police chase. Records show he chased a fraud suspect, but law does not authorize him to chase someone involved in a non-violent misdemeanor, traffic stop or non-violent felony.
In 2011, a harassment complaint was filed against him.
In 2012, he was put on temporary leave after shooting a man following a police chase. That shooting, which ultimately killed John Donald Augstgen, Jr., was found justified. He was also nominated for the Governor’s Medal of Heroism following that shooting.
A lieutenant who nominated him for the award said he potentially saved other officer’s lives, or citizen’s lives by shooting Augstgen before he could hurt anyone.
Sgt. Brian MacNaught’s record revealed minimal complaints during his time with the department.
Only one complaint was discovered in 2010, where he missed a detail he was scheduled to work. Records show he had to take a sick family member to the hospital and forgot about the shift.
He, too, has lifesaving distinctions, one including helping save someone from a burning car.
Both men remain on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into the shooting death of 21-year-old Demarcus Semer.
Semer’s funeral is set for Saturday at 11 A.M at the Fenn Center in Fort Pierce.
