As a crowd gathered outside Real Life Christian Church in the scorching Saturday sun, a moment of silence was broken by the crackle of a radio.
“Lake 2036,” began a voice, referring to the call sign of Lake County Master Deputy Bradley Link, as it began his final transmission retiring from duty.
“May the sun shine on his house. May the wind always be at his back. May the Lord hold him in the palm of his hand until we meet again,” it continued. “On August 10th at 12:51 p.m. it will be 10:7 a.m. at Lake 2036.”
A giant flag hanging from a fire truck greeted the hundreds who attended Link’s celebration of life, a week after he was killed in an alleged burglary at a home on Brookside Drive in Eustis.
During the ceremony, Sheriff Peyton Grinnell recounted Link’s actions on the day of the shooting and posthumously awarded him the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart.
“Master Deputy Link embodied the highest ideals of duty, honor and sacrifice,” said Grinnell. “He faced danger without hesitation, remained steadfast in the face of adversity and selflessly placed the safety of others above his own.”
Link, 28, arrived at the scene on his way home from his shift. He and other officers were ambushed by the family living there. The family allegedly waited while Julie Ann Sulpizio, the matriarch, tried to lure neighbors into the house to kill them, claiming they were acting on behalf of God.
Despite being shot, Link fired back and fired a barrage of fire to allow his colleagues to escape. Two other officers, Harold Howell and Stefano Gargano, were shot while trying to rescue Link, who was trapped inside the house.
Both survived, but Gargano, who was shot multiple times and had to undergo several operations, remains in stable condition in the hospital.
Cheyenne and Savannah Sulpizio – 22 and 23 – were found dead in the house along with their stepfather, 49-year-old Michael Sulpizio, after shooting themselves in the head. Julie Ann Sulpizio, 48, is charged with murder and attempted murder.
“Brad died doing what he loved,” Grinnell said. “He was a hero.”
Link, who is survived by his wife, Brittany Link, long dreamed of becoming a police officer. As a teenager, he participated in the Sheriff’s Office Explorers Program and later served in the Army Reserve before becoming a Polk County deputy sheriff in 2017.
Two years later, he joined the Lake County Sheriff’s Office as a Master Deputy.
Link’s colleagues — Deputies Stephanie Early, Matt Layman and Preston Leonard — remembered him as a kind and courageous man who enjoyed his work. Early said Link was their field instructor before the two and their spouses became close friends.
“He was a role model,” Early said. “His ability to navigate life and treat others with kindness inspired people.”
“He made me want to change my lifestyle and motivated me to become the best person I could be.”
Layman, who said he and Link were jokingly referred to as “work wives,” remembered him as a nice man, even if “we sometimes argued like a married couple.” Leonard, who affectionately called Link “Baby Boy,” also described him as “truly fearless in all his endeavors.”
“His love for his job as a law enforcement officer stems from his truly selfless desire to help others,” Leonard said.
Aside from his job, the three said Link was a man who undeniably loved his wife. His family’s pastor, Justin Miller, recalled his first meeting with the couple – the first thing he noticed was his distinctive mustache.
“I know behind every huge mustache there is a very accepting woman, so I saw that and said, ‘Man, she must really love you if she lets you have a mustache that big,'” Miller said. “She just grabbed his arm and said ‘yes,’ and he just beamed. It was a beautiful moment.”
Dressed in white, Brittany Link stood before the audience and thanked them and the community for their support. She described her husband as funny, gentle and sweet, calling him her teddy bear. He loved bright lights of all kinds, she said, and loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and visits to the Magic Kingdom.
“He exuded a quiet confidence – slow to speak, slow to anger, quick to understand,” Brittany Link said of her husband and high school sweetheart, who, she added, was “truly a living, breathing angel.”
A GoFundMe page set up in Link’s honor had raised more than $155,000 for his family as of Saturday afternoon.
Brittany Link also called on the community to carry on the fallen congressman’s legacy of kindness and courage: “Have Bradley’s heart for the needy, the broken, the outcast and the lonely.”
“I really believe that he is still watching over me from heaven by sending you all to me,” she concluded.
