ORLANDO, Fla. — Pete Antonacci, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election fraud office director and former Broward County elections supervisor, lay “dead or dying” in a governor’s office hallway for 24 minutes last year before anyone came to his aid, The Florida Bulldog reported.
The Bulldog, a nonprofit news organization, also reported Sunday that no autopsy was performed by the medical examiner’s office.
Antonacci, 74, died Sept. 23, 2022, following a contentious meeting of the Office of Election Crimes and Security, which DeSantis appointed him to lead two months earlier.
The Bulldog’s review of five heavily redacted Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports did not reveal the meeting’s agenda or what was discussed. DeSantis had created the office to ensure what he called “election integrity” after former President Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
Antonacci abruptly left the meeting before he died, and his death was previously announced as taking place at an undisclosed location within the Capitol building, where one floor contains offices for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, CFO, and agriculture commissioner
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement ecords stated Antonacci “lay dead or dying on the hallway floor of the governor’s office for more than 20 minutes before anyone apparently noticed and came to his aid,” the Bulldog wrote. “More precisely, 24 minutes, in a hallway under real time video-only surveillance.”
“By the time a Capitol police officer arrived a minute or two later and hooked the pulseless Antonacci up to (a defibrillator), the machine … assessed Antonacci and advised that ‘no shock’ was needed,” the Bulldog reported.