‘All-around great guy and officer’; Community mourns fallen CCSO deputy

WINK News is hearing from people who had firsthand encounters with the late Sgt. Elio Diaz, people who say Diaz changed their lives.

Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell posthumously promoted Corporal Diaz to sergeant Monday.

The memorial is just a tiny glimpse into the impact Diaz had on everyone who knew and loved him.

It’s not hard to find someone whose life he touched.

WINK News spoke to a few people Diaz helped out of the kindness of his heart.

Diaz was proud to sign up for this year’s Shop with a Cop event and gather Christmas gifts with kids in need.

Helping people is in Diaz’s nature. Just ask Alese Hibbins.

“There were many times that he could have just put me in handcuffs and, you know, brought me to jail, but he actually took the time to talk to me,” said Hibbins.

This is a picture of Alese during the time in her life when she met Diaz.

From 2016 to 2018, Hibbins walked the streets of Charlotte County as a drug addict.

Diaz didn’t judge her.

“He interacted with me so many times. He’d stop me on my bicycle, and he just always took the time to actually talk to me and hear my story. He never, never made me feel bad or talk down,” said Hibbins. “He just was always super human, and he’s just a really all-around great guy and officer. He truly had empathy for people.”

Alese is now in recovery, and she credits Diaz for her smile.

“It kind of gave me the courage to get back to my old self and know that I wasn’t how everyone else views addicts. It just made me really want to seek to be myself again,” said Hibbins.

Diaz gave Destiny Carpenter a bit of hope too. He put her at ease when he calmed her precious two babies.

“I mean, met him last month. He was helping me with my kids. We were going through a little thing, but my kids were scared, and he comforted them,” said Carpenter. “I have a 6-month-old and a 19-month-old. They’re scared of people, but they warmed up to him very well within the short hour that we knew each other.”

Carpenter knows her son and daughter won’t remember the way Diaz treated them, but she will never forget his compassion.

“I’m definitely gonna make sure that they know the person that he was because that was a great impact that he did for us,” said Carpenter.

His fellow men and women at the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said Diaz had a personality bigger than any situation.

He loved to laugh and make others laugh and he loved Cuban coffee.

Diaz was a husband and a father of four.

The women WINK spoke to want his family to know that they’re thinking of them.