FHP Trooper receives Medal of Valor. Top honor given for her actions during Key Largo shootout

A Keys-based Florida Highway Patrol trooper this week received the highest honor given by her agency.

Trooper Christine Gracey was awarded the Medal of Valor Wednesday for her actions during a shootout that happened in January when she found herself exchanging fire with a rampaging Key Largo man.

While there is crime in the Keys, the type of gun battle that raged in the early morning hours of Jan. 21 is rare. Rarer still is the type of courage Gracey showed while coming to the aid of her colleagues in the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

"Trooper Gracey's main concern was preventing harm to others and the apprehension of a dangerous criminal," Lt. Kathleen McKinney wrote in her recommendation letter for Gracey to receive the medal. "These actions by Trooper Gracey go above and beyond the normal duties of a trooper; she is therefore deserving of our department's highest award, the Medal of Valor."

Gracey, 49, said before she got the call for help, the biggest thought on her mind that day was completing the last of several graveyard shifts.

"It was my last midnight," she said laughing this week. Gracey was in a much better place while receiving her award at FHP E Station in Doral than she was coming under fire in her cruiser in Key Largo back in January.

That night, she managed to stay calm as a bullet blasted through her windshield, went through her rearview mirror, whistled past her face, bounced off the prisoner cage in the backseat of the cruiser and landed at her feet.

It happened in the Circle K gas station parking lot at mile marker 106 at around midnight. She was providing backup for Monroe County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Sidney Whitehouse, who was chasing Robert Schminky, 57. Schminky was on the run in his Lexus SUV after deputies responded to his home on a domestic-violence call. He is accused of beating his wife Honour so badly with the butt of a shotgun that she was left with several broken ribs and a broken arm. In the process of the alleged abuse, the shotgun stock broke.

When a Sheriff's Office deputy reached the couple's home just before midnight after being called by one of Honour's relatives, Schminky fired two shotgun blasts into the ground.

He drove away in his SUV. During a chase up County Road 905, deputies say Schminky fired a handgun at them. He then turned around and drove into the Circle K parking lot.

He was corralled by two Sheriff's Office cruisers and Gracey's car, which Schminky rammed into. The two cars were temporarily locked together because the Lexus was snagged on the push bumper attached to the front of the FHP car.

Schminky then began firing pistol rounds into Gracey's cruiser. Besides the round that entered the car, two more hit the blue lights on top of the vehicle. He also shot at the deputies, shooting a total of 31 rounds, one of which grazed Whitehouse's leg.

Gracey had to be careful returning fire. If she missed, she risked hitting the deputies. Schminky finally freed his Lexus from the FHP car. That's when Gracey felt safe enough to shoot back.

"I fired one round. When we were stuck together, the deputies were on the other side of his car," she said. "I didn't have a clear shot."

Gracey's round did not hit Schminky but it left her with hearing loss, for which she also received a department Purple Heart.

"When you shoot from inside the car, it's like being inside a metal cage," she said.

He then drove to St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church near mile marker 105.5. He reportedly fired several shots at Deputy Nestor Argote and ran off but soon was captured by Argote and Detective Barney Sajdak.

In the Lexus, officers reported finding a .44-magnum revolver with six empty shell casings, and six shells apparently from a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun.

Honour Schminky told deputies that her husband flew into a rage when she asked him about results of his medical tests.

Robert Schminky is in the county jail with no bond allowed. He pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted first-degree murder, assault on law-enforcement officers and fleeing from officers.

This story was originally published May 1, 2015 at 10:43 AM with the headline "FHP Trooper receives Medal of Valor. Top honor given for her actions during Key Largo shootout."