MACCLENNY, Fla. – Baker County sheriff's deputies said two men shot Wednesday afternoon at a home on Minnesota Avenue in Macclenny are not cooperating with investigators.
The Sheriff's Office said a deputy responding to a call of shots fire outside a home on Minnesota Avenue found Ricky Johnson, 35, with a gunshot wound to the hand outside the home and Michael Jones, 40, who had been shot in the arm, leaning against a wall inside. Deputies rendered first aid until paramedics arrived to transport them to Ed Fraser Hospital
Recommended Videos
According to the police report, a spent .22-caliber shell casing was found on the floor next to Jones and a .22 rifle was found leaning against a couch in the house.
While most witnesses at the scene reported hearing the gunshots, they said they did not see anything. According to the report, the victims themselves gave conflicting stories of what happened.
"Somebody was showing some other people some guns and it went off accidentally," the report quotes Jones, adding that he refused to identify who was there with the gun. Investigators said Johnson refused to give any information, saying, "I've been through this (expletive) before. I ain't telling ya'll (expletive) nothing."
One man did tell investigators that "the streets are telling him" Brandon Ruise had been "beefing" over a girl and armed himself with a rifle, entered the home and fired two or three shots.
On Thursday, with Jones now being treated at UF Health Jacksonville, he gave a little more information, but changed the story several times and was still "evasive in his statements, in assisting me to identify who actually fired the gun."
Based on other facts, testimony and physical evidence, the Sheriff's Office brought Ruise, 21, in for an interview. The report said Ruise described a verbal confrontation that led to Johnson swinging an expandable baton at him. Ruise said he grabbed the rifle, but Johnson was struggling with him over the gun when it went off, then it went off again when the rifle hit the ground.
Ruise admitted to fleeing the scene before deputies arrived.
After Johnson was released from the hospital, he was interviewed again at the Sheriff's Office, but again said he "does not do any snitching."
"It's not my job to help you," the report quotes Johnson as saying. "What happens in the streets stays in the streets; fists, guns and knives."
The shooting remains under investigation.