Florida Official Lay Dying for 24 Minutes Without Help: Report

Peter Antonacci, the Florida head of election security who died in September of an apparent heart attack, lay in a hallway within Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office suite for 24 minutes before anyone noticed him, according to documents newly obtained by a news outlet in the state.

Antonacci had just left “a contentious meeting” in the suite when he collapsed September 23, Florida Bulldog reports. “That Antonacci, 74, was stricken in the governor’s office was kept secret at the time,” the site reports. “Instead, authorities only said he died while at work in the Capitol building, of which the governor’s office is a part.”

The election official “lay dead or dying on the hallway floor” for 24 minutes before anyone tried to assist him, according to the outlet, which cites Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. The hallway is under continuous video surveillance. FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass and General Counsel Ryan Newman were the first to notice Antonacci, the records state. Glass and Chief of Staff Shane Desguin administered chest compressions and notified emergency medical personnel. When a police officer arrived a couple of minutes later and tried to revive Antonacci with a defibrillator, it was too late. He was taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, and no autopsy was performed.

Attendees at the meeting included Glass, Desguin, Newman, Secretary of State James “Cord” Byrd, his general counsel Bradley McVay, FDLE director of executive investigations Scott McInerney, and two men and two women who were not identified. It took place in a conference room within the governor’s suite of offices, but there’s no record of DeSantis having been at the meeting. Antonacci had left the meeting “abruptly” and in an “agitated” state, McInerney told investigators. It’s not clear what he was upset about.

DeSantis appointed Antonacci as director of the newly created Office of Election Crimes and Security in July 2022. This came in response to Donald Trump’s unsupported claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. DeSantis was a Trump ally until recently, but the two are now competing for the Republican presidential nomination. Antonacci had worked for both Republican and Democratic officials in Florida as a prosector and in other posts, and was Broward County’s supervisor of elections from 2018 to 2020.

Several news outlets have sought comment from DeSantis in response to the Bulldog report, but none has been forthcoming. Immediate aftear Antonacci's death, the governor issued a statement saying he was "deeply saddened" and that Antonacci was aa "a dedicated, tenacious, and assiduous public servant, lawyer, and respected professional — a friend to all in the State of Florida."