VERO BEACH — A federal grand jury has indicted a 72-year-old Colorado man accused of opening fire on a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force during a March arrest attempt in Vero Beach.
The indictment was announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Court documents identify the defendant as Thomas Earl Steffens, of Grand Junction, Colorado.
Steffens faces five counts of attempted murder of a federal officer, one count of aggravated assault of a federal officer and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
Members of the U.S. Marshals Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force tracked Steffens to Vero Beach on March 2 after he left Colorado on a Greyhound bus, according to court records and earlier statements from local and federal officials. The task force included Indian River County and Martin County deputies assigned to the unit.
About 8:30 p.m., officers stopped the vehicle Steffens was riding in near 12th Street and Commerce Avenue. A woman who had picked him up after he arrived on the Treasure Coast got out of the vehicle. Steffens, seated in the passenger seat, refused repeated commands to exit, authorities said.
He then opened fire from inside the vehicle, officials said. A deputy U.S. marshal was shot in the leg and treated at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital. An Indian River County deputy suffered a minor injury, possibly from shrapnel. Officers returned fire and struck Steffens four times.
Steffens was taken to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce. He was booked into the Indian River County Jail on March 7 after his release from the hospital.
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said at the time that officers had been preparing to use pepperball rounds when Steffens started shooting.
“This guy made the decision that he wanted to shoot at deputies, and we shot back at him,” Flowers said.
Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said investigators had information that Steffens did not intend to be taken into custody alive.
Steffens, a former neurosurgeon who had worked at the VA hospital in Grand Junction, was wanted in Colorado on warrants issued Feb. 25. Grand Junction police accused him of drugging a woman with prescription medication and sexually assaulting her on Jan. 28. The Colorado charges include two counts of sexual assault, second-degree assault by strangulation and third-degree assault.
He had been suspended from the VA in 2025 for what officials described as inappropriate activities. Colorado records listed his medical license as restricted.
Steffens already faces state charges in Indian River County in case 2026-CF-000236-A, including five counts of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer by discharging a firearm, one count of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm and one count of resisting an officer with violence while armed. He pleaded not guilty in April and was denied a public defender after a court finding that he was not indigent.
He remains in custody. The federal case is separate from the Colorado warrants and the state charges already filed in Indian River County.