Man dies in Ron DeSantis’ office under mysterious circumstances

Recently released police records have revealed that Peter Antonacci, a man Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) hired in 2022 to lead his so-called “elections fraud unit,” died in a hallway of DeSantis’ office in the state capitol after “abruptly” leaving a contentious meeting on September 23, 2022.

His death wasn’t widely reported when it occurred, and surveillance camera footage revealed that he received no medical attention for 24 minutes after his initial collapse. It’s unclear if DeSantis attended the meeting that Antonacci had attended just before his death. No autopsy was ever performed on Antonacci, something a state medical examiner called “unusual.”

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Antonacci, the state’s first director of the Office of Election Crimes and Security, attended a meeting on September 23, 2022 with 11 other individuals, including Secretary of State James “Cord” Byrd. After abruptly leaving the meeting, Antonacci collapsed, hit his head on a door, and lay dead or dying for 24 minutes in the view of a surveillance camera before anyone noticed, The Florida Bulldog reported.

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The 74-year-old man was transported to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital where a doctor concluded that he had died of a heart attack.

Records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) said that surveillance camera footage showed Antonacci exiting the conference room around 1:46 p.m., staggering forward, and then collapsing to the floor face-down. While collapsing, he hit his forehead on a door, leaving him with a small, bleeding cut. He remained motionless on the floor after falling.

Around 2:10 p.m., FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass and FDLE general counsel Ryan Newman stepped outside the conference room meeting and talked for barely a minute before noticing Antonacci’s body. Glass rolled Antonacci onto his side at first and then rolled him onto his back to begin administering CPR. Glass said Antonacci’s face “was purple and blue” and said he could feel no pulse.

When the people inside the conference room were told to call 911 for help, the meeting’s attendees began hiding under the room’s table, worried that an active shooter might’ve entered DeSantis’ office. However, they stopped hiding when they realized what had actually occurred.

One minute later, Capitol Police officers arrived with an automated external defibrillator (AED) machine. The machine reportedly “could not produce a shock” to jumpstart Antonacci’s heart. He continued to receive CPR and breathing assistance with an artificial manual breathing unit (also called an “Ambu bag”) until he was transported to the hospital.

By 2:47 p.m., a hospital doctor pronounced Antonacci dead. An unnamed state medical examiner expressed surprise to the Bulldog that an autopsy wasn’t conducted on the deceased man.

“I’m wondering why he didn’t go through the medical examiner’s office seeing that he died in the governor’s office,” the examiner told the aforementioned publication. “Wouldn’t they want to do that, just to [cover their a**es]? I mean, gosh, [Gov. Lawton] Chiles died at the executive mansion [on Dec. 12, 1998] and he went through the medical examiner’s office.”

News of Antonacci’s year-old death has coincided with other recent unflattering headlines for Florida’s rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ governor. Politico recently reported that his anti-vaxxer Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has been criticized for doing very little at the University of Florida while being paid a $262,000 faculty salary there. Also, Chris Jankowski, the now-former CEO of DeSantis’ Never Back Down political action committee (PAC), recently left the PAC over “significant disagreements” in the direction of DeSantis’ presidential campaign.

DeSantis is currently trailing nearly 48 percentage points behind former President Donald Trump in national polls, according to Real Clear Politics. DeSantis has invested millions in Iowa, the first state to hold a Republican presidential primary. If DeSantis doesn’t win the state’s January 15 primary, it may well signal the end of his rocky campaign.