A little more than a year after her brother was killed in the line of duty, Katelyn Kotfila became a Hillsborough County deputy.

  • Katelyn Kotfila joins Hillsborough Sheriff's Office
  • John Kotfila was killed in crash last year
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Her brother, John, was killed when a driver hit him head-on while going the wrong way on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway in March last year.

At a graduation just like her brother's before her, Katelyn Kotfila marched into the line of duty on Wednesday.

"Any time I see anything Hillsborough County Sheriff's office related, I think of him. So now I think of him daily," Kotfila said.

Those thoughts encouraged her to become a Hillsborough deputy.

"I think he'd just be really proud of me. And be happy. I just wish he could be here with me," Kotfila said.

John Kotfila, Jr. was 30 when he died in the line of duty. His father, John Kofila, Sr., a Massachusetts state trooper, said it changed Katelyn's life.

"She was questioning her life at that point, saying 'How I am affecting people? I'm not affecting people like my brother did.' He was a role model to her, and she said she was going to carry on his footsteps," Kotfila said.

After months of training, she can do just that.

"I'm reminded daily that he is not here. But in the process, if I can help save one family from the pain and suffering that I went through, it would be worth it," she said.