SPIRIT
for us, so I wouldn’t know. We’ve just always been close and I remember us always doing everything together.” Zach, previously an equipment operator in the construction industry, has been with the LCSO for about two-and-a-half years. He says he didn’t really plan on changing professions. Zach and Austin “Everybody has a story on how they got into this, but I kind of just woke up one day and thought it would be something I’d be interested in. There’s really no rhyme or reason for it, just maybe that I have some friends in the business and they said, ‘Yeah, you should go ahead and try it,’” Zach says. “Austin being a paramedic kind of had something to do with it too, but being a firefighter or paramedic were both things I didn’t want to do, and since basically there are three lines of service as a first responder, that left law enforcement.” Austin, at one time, planned to join culinary school. Like his brother, he hadn’t planned on becoming a first responder until one day while driving down the road. “I really don’t have any rhyme or reason. I was on the intersection of Picciola and 27 (near Fruitland Park) and I saw an ambulance with its lights and sirens go through the light and I said, ‘Hey, I bet that’s a fun job,’ and the next week I signed up for paramedic school,” says Austin. “I worked for an EMT crew for one year, then went to medic school for two years and became a paramedic.” Both brothers are glad they followed their gut. Both feel they’ve found their calling. The only thing that worries them is the climate between the public and law enforcement these days, though in Lake County, they say it’s not as bad as in other parts of Florida or other cities across the country.
“IT’S JUST A FEELING I GET SOMETIMES LIKE I CAN SENSE SOMETHING ABOUT HIM OR THAT SOMETHING IS GOING ON WITH HIM.” — Z AC H S U L L I VA N
Zach Sullivan
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