Thursday FGS

KelTec RFB Bullpup

‘It’s getting very ridiculous’: Another Jacksonville officer shot in 2023
He was shot in the face and is the third local officer wounded this year

Scott Butler
The numbers are grim. They are startling, and they are scary.

Tuesday night saw the third police officer shot in Jacksonville this year. All have survived, which can’t be said for the three gunmen who were subsequently killed — one self-inflicted according to the Sheriff’s Office. Two began with an attempted stop of a vehicle.

“It’s getting very ridiculous. It’s very dangerous. It’s concerning,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said of his officers being shot and at close range. He said he’s never seen anything like it in his nearly 32 years on the job here.

One officer was shot last year, and that was in his body armor during an October burglary call on Hatchling Court on the Westside. The 37-year-old suspect, Charlie Brown, died jumping from the Dames Point bridge into the river trying to escape following a chase, the Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday’s situation began about 9:30 p.m. with an off-duty officer working at Baptist Medical Center South on Old St. Augustine Road noticing a suspicious vehicle circling the parking lot. The officer attempted to stop the car using his patrol vehicle. The driver decided to flee, but a supervisor listening in advised him not to chase him due to safety concerns in the parking lot, Waters said.

Other officers responded as the hospital was put on lockdown, and one was outside his vehicle when he spotted a car of the same description in the parking lot. Waters said he raised a hand and told him to stop the car several times.

“The subject inside the car rolled the window down slightly, held out a gun or what looked like a gun, and said, ‘Shoot me,'” the sheriff said.

The officer didn’t shoot, and then the driver pulled up next to another police car and fired one shot into the vehicle.

1 / 0 / 0
Florida Times Union

Two Cold War tours there, and it was bad then.

Police: Suspect reached for gun prior to police shooting; Huber Heights officer placed on paid leave

BUTLER TWP. — Butler Twp. Police Chief John Porter and Huber Heights Police Chief Mark Lightner have provided more information into the shooting that hospitalized a suspect late last week.

Police were called out to the Days Inn on Miller Lane on the evening April 13 on reports of shots being fired. Around that time, a woman called and said the Taevion Booker had shot at her. It was reported Booker, 23, then left the Days Inn and headed toward Arbys on Miller Lane.

Porter said at the time of the call, several other officers were on priority calls and weren’t able to respond, so a call for mutual aid. That was when two Huber Heights officers responded to Miller Lane.

A Huber Heights officer, identified as K9 Officer Shawn Waler, located Booker walking on Miller Lane, near O’Charley’s, and activated his emergency lights and approached Booker.

Waler ordered Booker to stop twice, put his hands up and face away from the officer. At this time, a Butler Twp. officer arrived on scene. As the officer walks toward Booker and Waler, the Huber Heights officer fires three shots at Booker.

Lightner showed body and cruiser camera video from the incident. In it, he pointed out, what he described as, Booker lowering his hands to pull up his pants and pull out a gun. Video showed Waler yell at Booker to drop the gun before firing three shots.

A gun was seen falling from Booker’s right hand to the ground in the video.

0 / 1 / 0
WHIO

The video update ruined the implications the editors raised. So sad. Thanks for the links again, Gun Bunny. Been getting gun pR0n recommendations from some usual suspects, too.

“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
– Publius

Category: Feel Good Stories, Guest Link